PS I Love You
by Lolsome-o-sis girl
Summary: [Destiel, Sabriel, Jimmy/Amelia; AU fic; full summary inside] Castiel Novak's otherwise boring job at the library takes an unexpected detour when anonymous love letters addressed to him begin to appear down the returns chute. Jimmy Novak finds the situation hilarious and helps to engineer a plan to discover the identity of the mystery sender.
1. On The Job

**P.S. I Love You**

 _Fandom: Supernatural_

 _Rating: T_

 _Genre: Friendship, Romance_

 _Pairing: Dean/Castiel, Sam/Gabriel, Jimmy/Amelia_

 _Summary:_ _[AU fic]_ _Castiel Novak's otherwise boring job at the library takes an unexpected detour when anonymous love letters addressed to him begin to appear down the returns chute. Jimmy Novak finds the situation hilarious - it's about time that his twin brother got some action - and_ _helps to_ _engineer a plan to discover the identity of the mystery sender. Except Castiel isn't so sure about all this; maybe the childhood crush on his best friend Dean that hasn't exactly faded along with childhood has something to do with that... Destiel, Sabriel, and Jimmy/Amelia MULTICHAPTER._

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 **AN: Well, hello there, my little sock puppets! I am back with a new Destiel story for you all to enjoy! Hooray!**

 **Inspired by a Tumblr prompt from a blog called OTP Prompts! Go check 'em out! (The prompt kind of gives away the storyline more than the actual summary does and we don't want that, but I'll put it at the end.)**

 **Updates will be as regular as I can make them; obviously, I have to prioritize university applications/school/personal statements...(bleh).**

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 **DISCLAIMER. I do not own Supernatural.**

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 _ **1.**_ _On The Job_

" _I SAY LA, LA LA LA LA, LA LA LA LA_ \- Can't this shit-heap of yours go any faster?"

Castiel Novak pulled his gaze away from the bumper of the slow-moving Chevy in front to send a glare in the direction of his passenger. His twin brother Jimmy was currently sprawled across his seat, feet perched on the dashboard, using his left hand to brush away the flakes of pastry that now covered his slacks whilst the other hand was clamped around some kind of bread-based food he'd bought from the grocery store twenty minutes earlier.

"Jimmy," Cas began, tone not amused. "Just because I agreed to chauffeur you round for the foreseeable future does not mean that you have the right to start complaining about my car." He nodded towards the roof of the vehicle - or, as Jimmy had started calling it, " _the tin can on wheels_ ". "If you hate riding with me in my car so much, you should have thought about that before you crashed your own."

"Hey!" Jimmy protested, pulling a face around his mouthful of food. "In my defence, that plant pot came out of no where! No one could have caught it in time!" He paused to swallow. "Besides, _Breaking Bad_ was on, and you know Gabriel always comes over to watch it at our place because the reception in his apartment is crap. I couldn't be late picking him up. That would just be rude."

"Except you _were_ late, and you didn't pick him up. _I_ did." Cas rolled his eyes, irked; having spent the last half an hour driving around their corner of the Lawrence neighbourhood listening to his twin complain about his boss, moan about how hungry he was, and put his tone-deaf singing voice to good use by belting out every single 80s hit that the radio station decided to play this early in the morning, he really wasn't in the mood to listen to Jimmy try to blame Mr and Mrs Braeden's plant pot for his troubles. Plus, he was never going to be able to listen to Simple Minds ever again after hearing Jimmy's voice mixed in with Jim Kerr's.

"C'mon, Cas, step on it," Jimmy said again after a beat of silence. "Crowley will have my ass served up to him on a silver platter if I'm late again."

"Why didn't you just call Amelia and get her to drive you around?" Cas replied. "She works at the same freaking radio station as you do."

"Yeah, well, y'know..." Jimmy shifted in his seat, a light dusting of red starting to blossom over his cheeks. "I didn't wanna bother her."

"So you decided to bother _me_ instead?"

Castiel hadn't exactly been pleased (to put it mildly) when Jimmy called - at eleven o'clock at night, he might add - garbling about his car's tires now being full of chunks of ceramic plant pot, and, oh God, how the hell was he going to be able to afford new ones, and could Castiel please, please, please get his lazy ass out of bed and come and pick him up, and also drive him to work for the rest of the week...or month...or decade?

Oh, and the next morning's newspaper would be swell too.

Jimmy seemed to have forgotten that Castiel now had a job too (a proper one, not just a few odd night shifts here and there at the Gas-N-Sip) - or, at least, he would do, if his half hour detour transporting Jimmy around didn't get him fired before he even made it through his first day.

Jimmy was grinning. "You're my little brother, Cas. Bothering you should be in my job description."

Castiel let out a sigh. "You're older than me by approximately two minutes, Jimmy. _Two minutes_. That's one hundred and twenty seconds. I don't think people really count that when determining who is older."

"Yes, they do. It still counts."

"No, it doesn't."

"Yes, it does."

"No, it doesn't."

"Yes, it does."

"Doesn't!"

"Does!"

Cas shook his head. Jimmy was like a dog with a bone when it came to the age thing. "Fine. Whatever you say."

Jimmy nodded, looking triumphant. "Thank you." He leant back against the passenger seat, licking his fingers clean of any trace of food. His phone buzzed in his pocket a second later; he sighed when he took a look at it a few moments later.

"Is Crowley sharpening his knife and fork?"

"No. It's Amelia. She wants to know where I am. There's doughnuts in the staff lounge this morning." His voice sounded almost wistful - although whether it was because of Amelia or because of the food he was missing out on, Castiel wasn't exactly sure. He rolled his eyes at his brother for good measure.

"Do you ever stop eating?" It was a wonder Jimmy didn't explode considering the amount of hours he spent consuming some kind of foodstuff.

"Not really, no." Jimmy shrugged. "What can I say? Work drives me to over-eating."

"Jimmy, you'll a sales provider for AM Radio. How exactly does that drive you to over-eating?"

"Trust me, little bro, if you had Crowley for a boss, you'd binge-eat to cope with it too." He grinned as Cas swerved suddenly and let his car idle on the edge of the sidewalk outside the radio station offices, grabbing his briefcase and pecking his brother on the cheek, laughing at Castiel's noise of protest as he jumped out of the passenger door.

"Good luck, baby brother!" He called over his shoulder.

"Two minutes, Jimmy!" Cas yelled after his retreating back. Jimmy merely raised a fist in the air as a parting gesture, his cackling chuckle echoing through the air. Castiel shook his head and pulled away from the sidewalk, pressing his foot down on the accelerator.

Despite Jimmy's inability to look after his own car, Castiel managed to get his rusty heap of a vehicle moving at a speed that allowed him to reach the particular Lawrence library he wanted on time. Marv, a older man in glasses with gray hair that stuck out in tufts around his head came out to greet him and introduced himself as "Metatron", which confused Castiel immensely because _Marv_ was clearly written across his name badge. But, it was a "long story", apparently, and so he didn't dare ask, even out of politeness.

None of the few other staff on duty looked as comfortable with the idea of working in amongst the stacks upon stacks of books as he did, he noticed, as Marv-But-You-Can-Call-Me-Metatron politely showed him around (not that there was really much to see besides the almost empty staff lounge and the tiny office nicknamed "the back room" where all the returned books were categorised). The only other employee that seemed to notice his addition to the team was Meg, a scowling brunette girl slumped behind the counter, picking at her coal-coloured nails. She did, however, give him something of a feral grin when she noticed him observing her, an expression that made him feel incredibly uncomfortable.

"You'll get used to Meg eventually," Metatron replied when Cas voiced his thoughts. "She's always like that; great with the customers though."

"I'm sure," Cas replied, trying to sound civil, but failing as his tone of voice gave away his disbelief.

Metatron obviously noticed it. "I'm being serious. The kids especially love her."

"They do?" He risked another glance at Meg. During the small amount of time they'd been talking, a customer had gone up to ask about something that he couldn't hear properly; the brunette looked as if the whole enquiry bored her immensely and she would much rather get back to sulking in silence. One had to wonder about the youth of today if what Metatron was saying was true. Cas quickly pulled his eyes away before Meg could notice and give him another one of her predatory looks.

"Do you have many people working here?" He asked Metatron instead, more out of courtesy than actual interest.

"Oh, yeah, 'course," the other replied breezily. "We're very popular with the university students who live around here, for employment and for study resources."

Cas took a moment to glance over his shoulder at the rows upon rows of shelves that weren't being gazed upon by anyone. For a fleeting moment, he wondered whether or not he'd like to see what Metatron considered not being very popular. "Uh hu. I, uh, I don't doubt that."

"Uh, excuse me?" Both of the two men turned to look in the direction of the new voice; it was the customer whom Cas had seen talking to Meg a mere few seconds earlier. "Just thought I'd let you know that the returns chute is blocked; I mentioned it to the girl on the counter, but she just directed me over to you..." The woman looked between the two of them and shuffled uncomfortably. "Oh. I interrupted something, didn't I?"

"No, no," Metatron reassured her. "Don't worry about it. We're mostly done here, right, Cas?" He looked expectantly towards the younger man, clapping him on the back and almost knocking the air right from his lungs.

"Yes?" It sounded more like another question than a response.

"Well, in that case, could you deal with this situation? S'just we're a little rushed off our feet today, so we'll need all the help we can get."

Castiel frowned for a moment - he could count, at most, three customers browsing the shelves, and two younger children sitting at their mother's feet whilst she paid them no attention - but he quickly masked the expression and nodded. "Alright."

"Excellent!" Metatron gave both of them a gap-toothed smile. "Now, if you'll excuse me - _Hey!_ No running!" He took off after the runaway children, almost losing his glasses off the end of his nose in the process.

Castiel turned to address the woman in front of him. "The returns chute leads into the back room. I'll see what I can do."

"Thanks." After a moment of hesitation, the woman pushed a wayward strand of hair from her face, following him as he made a start towards the back room. "This your first day?"

"Is it really that obvious?"

"I come here a lot." She gave him a small shrug. "It's easy for me to spot a new face in amongst the crowd." There was a pause, as if she was uncertain about voicing her next words. "I'm Hannah, by the way. Just in case you're interested."

"Hannah? As in _favoured by God_?"

"Yeah." She let out an unamused snort. "Daughter of Christian parents. Bible name kind of goes with the territory. Why do you ask?"

He gave her a sheepish kind of smile. "I'm Castiel."

"What? You're kidding!" Hannah's face broke out into a grin.

"I'm afraid not."

"Well, then." Dimples appeared around her baby blue eyes, making them look childlike and gleeful. "Guess us bible kids better stick together."

"I guess so," Cas agreed, holding Hannah's gaze for a second longer with another smile of his own, before he slipped into the back room, quickly locating the tray that holds the returned books. Hannah was right - there was a book jammed in the way. A book about bees, no less. Considering Castiel's love of bees, it could almost be poetic.

A folded piece of paper slid from between the pages of aforementioned book as Cas pulled it free from the chute, fluttering to the floor. He stooped to retrieve it, fingers ready to crumple it up into a ball and send it in a graceful arch towards the recycling bin, but the sight of his name scrawled in looped handwriting on the front stopped him. Curious, he opened it.

 _Hey there, Blue Eyes_ , was all it said.

Cas frowned, instinctively turning to look behind him, as if in some kind of hope that the writer of the little note would be standing behind him in order to gauge his reaction. Unsurprisingly, he found the room empty. Instead, he idly traced the words on the paper with his finger. This had to be some kind of joke. Probably just a prank or something, a wind up for the new employee, because stuff like this never really happened to Castiel Novak. Never happened at all.

Sighing, he stuffed the note into his pocket to puzzle over later, and went to inform Hannah that the problem was solved and the chute was now unblocked.

* * *

"What's that face for?"

Jimmy let out a groan as he slammed the passenger door, leaning his head back against the seat whilst Cas checked the review mirror and pulled away from the sidewalk and onto the road. "Crowley caught us before we could sneak out at the end of shift. Gave us some big long rant about how deal numbers are dropping, or something of the like. I wasn't actually paying that much attention." He sighed wistfully. "Oh, and they were all out of biscuits in the cafeteria at lunch. I had to contend with a breadstick instead."

"Do you ever stop thinking about your stomach?"

Jimmy sent him his usual sarcastic expression, one which Cas often found himself calling _The Understatement face_ in his mind. "I haven't eaten in three hours, Cas. _Three hours_. I'm _starving_."

Cas rolled his eyes. "I wouldn't exactly call you starving, Jimmy. You eat like food's going out of fashion, for Gods sake. Look, there's a half eaten sandwich in that bag in the glove compartment there if you're that desperate -"

" _ **Where?**_ " Jimmy demanded in an almost feral manner, eyes circling the compartment before he pounced on the grocery store bag, ripping the sandwich from its plastic container and shoving it into his mouth, making a noise of relief as he chewed. Castiel screwed up his face.

"Jimmy, even for you, that's disgusting."

"Hey!" Came the muffled response through a mouthful of sandwich. "At least I actually eat; you hardly eat anything at all. Look at you! You're like a twig!"

"There's no need for personal comments, Jimmy."

"Hm." Was all he got in reply as Jimmy finished off the rest of the sandwich, even licking the crumbs out of the packet, much to Castiel's discomfort. "How was work?"

"Oh..." Cas let go of the steering wheel for a moment to wave his hand through the air in a dismissive fashion. "It was okay."

" _Okay_? That's it?" Jimmy frowned at him. "C'mon, that's an understatement, if I ever heard one; there's got to be more to it than that! What the hell did you even find to do for eight hours? What were the people like? Were they nice?" A smirk crossed his face. "Did you meet a special someone? A hot chick or something?"

"No!" Castiel insisted. The only female member of staff he'd met so far was Meg, and that hadn't exactly been pleasant. He'd spent the majority of the day trying to avoid her. Jimmy, however, was looking unconvinced. "What?"

"Nothing. I'm just going to let you talk in your own time. Because I'm a supportive big brother like that."

Cas rolled his eyes at the words, mumbling "Two minutes, Jimmy," under his breath, and stomped on the gas pedal, ignoring the whines of protest that emerged from his car's engine, and didn't slow up again until he saw the familiar house of the Winchesters up ahead.

Castiel and Jimmy had known the Winchesters for years, ever since they were five years old, when Novak family - consisting of the twins, their parents, and their half brother Gabriel - had moved up to Lawrence from Pontiac, Illinois during the summer before they started Kindergarten and settled in the house next door. Mary Winchester, having heard from her husband that Cas, Jimmy and Dean were the same age and were due to start school at the same time, had decided to invite the new additions to the street over for dinner one night, which had struck up the friendship between the two families, and particularly between Dean and Cas, taking an instant liking to each other when they found that they shared a love of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. The two of them had been close ever since that day, which was now nearly thirty years ago, closer than Jimmy and Dean became, and much much _much_ closer than Dean and Gabriel had ever been. Dean had ultimately been thrilled when his little brother Sam had latched onto Gabriel and therefore kept him out of the way. It was a bit of a surprise to everyone when they had gotten together a little over a year ago; Dean now loved to complain to Cas about how he couldn't get rid of Gabe any longer, because he was always turning up at his front door, unannounced, regardless of whether he was supposed to be working or not, wanting to see his " _favourite Samsquatch_ ".

In fact, Gabriel's car was already parked directly outside, behind Dean's Chevy Impala, when Castiel pulled up in front of the house, and he could hear Gabriel's voice echoing from somewhere in the basement, clashing with the soft sounds of someone playing guitar in the living room, when he stepped into the hallway and proceeded to hang his battered trenchcoat on one of the hooks by the front door. Jimmy, of course, prioritized his stomach over everything else, and so made a beeline straight towards the kitchen, Castiel at least ten steps behind him; he was seated at the kitchen table, smelling the air as his fingers drummed on the tabletop.

"Is that gingerbread?"

"I've learnt that I have to prepare dinner for at least twenty when you come over, Jimmy," Mary Winchester replied with a slight chuckle, fastening a bobby-pin into her blonde hair, pushing a plate of cookies across the counter. Jimmy took two and crammed them into his mouth, making an appreciative noise as he did so.

"Really, Jimmy?" Castiel stared at him.

"Wha'?" His twin mumbled, too busy enjoying the food to form proper words.

"You literally just inhaled a sandwich less than five minutes ago."

"I'm _hungry_ ," Was all Jimmy could say in reply, before making another contended sound. "Mrs Winchester, you are a goddess of cooking, let me tell you that."

Cas rolled his eyes, choosing to back out of the room instead of staying to watching the spectacle, deciding to go and seek out the search out the source of the guitar playing, pausing at the living room doorway. Dean was settled on the couch, his feet up on the coffee table, plucking absentmindedly at the strings of the guitar sitting in his lap. Cas felt his mouth pull up into a smile, resting his head against the varnished wooden door frame, listening and appreciating the soulful, almost melancholy sounds emitting from the room. A few minutes later, however, Dean switched to something more upbeat, strumming the familiar chords to _Smoke On The Water_ , inclining his head towards the doorway.

"You gonna stand there all day or what, Cas?"

Cas let out a snicker. His best friend seemed to have a knack of sensing whenever he was around. "How did you know it was me?"

"Because if you were Sammy and Gabriel, you would've already walked in here and started makin' out right in front of me to put me off, and if you were Mom, you would've requested I play _Hey Jude_ by now. Logically, the only person it could be was you."

"You don't know that." Cas moved from his spot by the doorway and perched on the arm of the couch, hands stuffed into his pockets, watching his best friend of nearly thirty years with a smile. "I could have been Jimmy, after all."

"Please. If Jimmy even managed to haul his ass away from Mom's cooking, he'd be standin' behind me eatin' already, and I think I would pick up on _that_." The two of them shared a chuckle.

"Someone say m'name?" Jimmy had materialised into the room, having managed to drag himself away from the kitchen, carrying a paper plate of gingerbread cookies. "Seriously, Winchester, your mom can cook like no one else. This is some good stuff." He slumped down on the couch in between Dean and his twin, grinning. "I can see why you don't venture far from home; I know I wouldn't if _our_ mom cooked like this." He took another bite of a cookie. "Hey, man, how's it going with that girl you're dating? Lia, or whatever her name is?"

"Lisa," Cas corrected.

Jimmy pulled a face at his brother's input (or " _nitpicking_ ", as he would often call it). "Close enough."

"As in Lisa Braeden," Dean informed him. "As in the daughter of the couple whose plant pot is currently sandwiched in your car's tires."

"Oh, _crap_." Jimmy made a spluttered coughing sound, trying to keep from choking on his chunk of cookie. "That was _their_ plant pot?"

"Yeah. Well done _there_ , genius." Dean rolled his eyes.

"You can pass on my apologies to them over Sunday dinner, right? I mean, I'd do it myself, but I think Mr Braeden might shoot me if I come within three metres of their house."

"Yeah, well, I think we'd both get shot, actually." Dean gave a shrug. "Me and Lisa kinda broke it off last night."

Jimmy let out a wordless noise of condolence, whilst Cas murmured his sorrow at this. Dean had really liked Lisa; he had seen it in his face, ever since he'd wandered into the kitchen a few months ago after his usual day at the garage with a smile at least a mile wide, a smile that Mary had to plug with around three pieces of cherry pie before her eldest son finally admitted that he'd met a girl. Dean had had many short-lived flings in the past, Cas remembered, but his relationship was Lisa was something that the Winchester had taken very seriously, something he hadn't done since middle school, and middle school relationships weren't exactly what a group of people now in their thirties would consider serious.

Dean gave his friends a half smile. "Yeah, well, y'know, just wasn't meant to be, I guess."

"Look on the bright side," Jimmy cut in, now that he had hoovered up his plate of food. "You're doing better in love than what Castiel is. Although, to be fair, that ain't exactly hard to do."

" _Wow_. Thank you, Jimmy. It appears that I can _always_ rely on you," Castiel replied in a sarcastic monotone.

Jimmy let out a laugh, unabashed. "You're just being bitter because you know that I'm right."

"You don't know that." The thought of the note, still crumpled in his coat pocket, popped into his mind without his permission.

"Oh, yeah?" Jimmy raised an eyebrow. "Are you finally ready to tell us all about the hot babe, then?"

"Hot -? What hot babe?" Dean looked confused. "Cas?"

"He met a girl at work today," Jimmy supplied.

"No, I didn't!" Castiel persisted. "There were no "hot babes" -" He made quotation marks around the word "- I can assure you."

"A hot _guy_ , then?"

"No! No girls, no guys, no anything!"

"Huh." Jimmy's amused expression had slipped now. "Well, that sounds mind-numbingly dull."

 _Hey there, Blue Eyes._

"Yes. Exactly." Cas gave his brother a playful shove. "Mind-numbingly dull. That sounds accurate."


	2. Cas' (and Jimmy's) Convoluted Plan

_**2.**_ _Cas' (and_ _Jimmy's_ _)_ _Convoluted Plan_

"What'cha got there?"

"Hm?" Cas glanced up from the folded piece of paper in his hand, momentarily distracted from the puzzlement it presented. Meg was leaning against her locker, the cap of her boot tapping against the door, jacket slung over her arm, an interested glint in her eyes. "Oh. Meg."

"That's my name, sweetie. Don't wear it out, or anything, _especially_ since you haven't even answered my question." She took a step towards him; Castiel hurriedly took one back in order to get some distance between them, backing up against his open locker, the metal door digging into his back through the material of his coat, causing one of her eyebrows to recede towards her hairline. "What'cha got there?" She repeated, this time a little more forcefully.

"Nothing," he lied quickly, a little too defensively, stuffing the paper into the pocket of his trenchcoat before her sharp, hawkish eyes could focus in and read the words written there.

It wasn't _nothing_ , of course. He'd only been working three days, and he had already collected seven notes, all addressed to him and all left in the return chute, slipped between the pages of books or sellotaped onto CD cases or just lying in the bottom of the tray. He'd had to start a small museum-worthy collection of them on the dashboard in his car; he was running out of space in his pockets. It seemed like every time he found himself staring at the chute collection tray, there was another note waiting for him. The most recent one had come through less than half an hour ago, when he'd emptied the tray and found, poking out of a map the Californian coastline, a note that read: " _My love for you could fill the oceans."_

It was a little bit cheesy, granted, but Cas had just rolled his eyes and slipped it into his pocket, feeling the corners of his mouth turning up into a small, secretive smile. On his first day, he'd been so sure that this had been a prank or a joke - he had, at one point, suspected that Jimmy had something to do with it, because Jimmy would certainly get a kick out of something like this - but now, the chances of that possibility seemed to be dwindling down further and further with each note that found its way into his hands. And, although Cas would never admit it aloud, he had a soft spot for romantic gestures, so this was definitely winning him over - even if he still had no idea who the sender was.

Meg was still raising an eyebrow at him, smirking. "Yeah. Clearly nothing when you're acting so secretive and trying to hide it away." Her expression suddenly turned suggestive and she took another long stride closer, edging her way into his personal space. "I wonder what else you've got hiding away there, hey, hot stuff..."

Castiel blanched. "I, um, er -"

She snorted, her lips pulling back to reveal her white teeth as she chortled at her own actions. "Oh, my God, your _face_. Where's the camera when I need it? That was freaking _priceless_."

Cas let out a flustered cough, feeling the familiar heat of embarrassment creeping up towards his face. "I'm glad that you find me so amusing to harass." He slammed his locker door, using more force than necessary, pushing past her as he tried to escape her personal bubble.

"Aw, no, don't be like that, Clarence! Don't run away!" She grinned smugly, enjoying herself far too much. He didn't bother to try and correct her on his name; after the Marv-Metatron situation, he'd simply accepted that the people employed here took pleasure in assigning nicknames to people, even if they made absolutely no sense whatsoever.

"I have to go." His voice sounded stiff as he called the words over his shoulder.

"Oh, c'mon, we were just getting to know each other!" Meg yelled at his retreating back, unable to keep the mirth out of her voice; he could practically _hear_ her smirking. "We haven't even held hands and sat around the campfire and swapped out deepest darkest secrets yet!"

Cas let out a noise that was between a huff and a growl as he shoved open the door at the end of the hallway, almost colliding head-on with Marv - _Metatron_ , he quickly corrected himself.

"Is something the matter?" The elder man's owl-like eyes blinked up at him through his thin spectacles. "I heard you shouting from inside my office." He glanced over Castiel's shoulder at Meg, whom he was pretty sure wasn't even trying to hide the fact she was somehow involved.

"It's fine." The words slid out through gritted teeth, before Cas side-stepped around Metatron, sighing in relief when he didn't have to wait more than a few seconds for the elevator to arrive, which meant that he didn't have to overhear his boss reprimanding Meg about winding up the new employees (yet again).

It was a dry, albeit crisp, day outside when Cas eventually made it out of the main entrance; he breathed in a heavy inhale as he made his way towards his rusting vehicle, wonkily parked on the sidewalk (he'd thought it was going to collapse altogether when he'd tried to parallel park earlier that morning, and then where would he be? The idea of taking the bus, sitting squashed next to his twin whilst he devoured his latest bakery purchase wasn't the most appealing of ideas), firing off a quick text to Jimmy to announce that he was on his way, before he slid into the drivers seat, rolling down the window. Driving usually helped him take his mind off things, and he switched the radio on as he slowly made his way onto the road, humming along to the familiar tune.

" _Believe it or not, I'm walking on air_ _,_ " he sang quietly under his breath, the words disappearing out of the window along with the light breeze rattling around the car. " _I never thought I could be so free, Flying away on a wing and a prayer..._ "

He came to a sudden stop outside the radio station, having to stomp down on the brakes to get his ageing vehicle to respond, which sent him careering forward, his stomach colliding with the wheel and knocking the breath from his lungs. Jimmy had been right about one thing; riding in Castiel's car didn't exactly guarantee a smooth drive.

As if hearing his name being spoken in his twin brother's thoughts, Jimmy finally emerged from the building, hands stuffed into his jacket pockets, deep in conversation with the woman that Cas vaguely recognised as Amelia. He smirked as she pushed a strand of strawberry blonde hair away from her face, chuckling at something Jimmy had said - it must be love, Castiel reasoned, if she was willing to laugh at the atrocity that was Jimmy Novak's sense of humor.

Jimmy made a gesture towards Cas' car, leaning forward as if to go in for a hug, before realising what he was doing and pausing, hovering awkwardly in mid air; instead he had to settle for a shoulder pat, holding her gaze for longer than what was strictly considered platonic. Cas had to bite back a laugh. It was kind of nice not to be the awkward one for a change.

Jimmy let out what appeared to be a nervous chuckle, before he turned on his heel and hurried away as fast as was polite, letting out a groan as soon as he got into the passenger seat. Cas shook his head, smirking.

"What?" Jimmy glanced at him out of the corner of his eye. "What're you smiling about?"

"Oh, nothing," Cas replied, as innocently as he could manage.

A red hue started to seep across Jimmy's face; he gave his twin brother a playful shove. "Don't mock me. At least I'm doing better than you.; although, as I said last night, that's not exactly hard."

"Whatever you say, _James_."

Jimmy scowled at this. He'd never been particularly fond of his full name. " _Castiel_ _._ Ugh, what is this rubbish that you're listening to?" He returned in the same tone, switching the radio off, sending them into silence as he reached into his pocket. "Lollipop?"

"I'm, er...good, thanks."

"Suit yourself. More for me." Jimmy proceeded to unwrap one, leaning forward to dispose the plastic covering on the dashboard. "Hey...what's all this crap?" He frowned, retrieving the small exhibit of notes that Cas had left there.

The car almost swerved off the road when Cas noticed what his twin was doing. "No - No, that's just - Jimmy - Please, Jimmy, don't -"

Too late. Jimmy was already unfolding the first note, sucking on the lollipop to help his concentration span.

" _You're the best thing that's ever happened to me,_ " he read aloud, slowly, frowning, opening up the next one. " _Every night, I dream of you_ _; If I could rearrange the alphabet, I'd put U and I together!; You give me butterflies when I look at you._ " He turned to fix his twin brother with a bright blue stare, a deep frown creasing his brow. "Somethin' you want to tell me, perhaps, Cassie?"

Cas let out a sigh, keeping his eyes trained on the street corner as the car lurched around the bend so he didn't have to look at his twin and his expectant expression. "They're not from me, if that's what you're thinking."

"I can see that, Cas. I didn't think you'd be the type to write love letters to yourself."

"I keep finding them. In the returns chute. Every day for the past three days." He took a hand off the steering wheel to reach into his pocket, tossing more folded pieces of paper at his brother. "At first I thought it was just some kind of joke, but, now..."

"Now?"

"Now I'm not so sure. Now I think...there might genuinely be someone out there who..." He trailed off, not daring to speak the words that might spark a little bit of hope there.

"And you said there were not hot babes working there, you freaking tease!" Jimmy let out a snort, descending back into third grade tactics. "Ooh, Cassie has a girlfriend!"

"No, Jimmy, Cassie does not have a girlfriend."

"Oh. Okay. Cassie has a _boy_ friend, then?"

"No -!"

"Because -" Jimmy interrupted "- you know that, if you did, that's totally cool with me. I've always said that; I mean, it's not like I'd be surprised, y'know, considering."

" _Considering_?" Cas completely forgot what his driving instructor had told him about watching the road at all times. "What does that mean? _Considering_?"

"Oh, come on!" Jimmy's voice sounded incredulous. "You're telling me you don't remember? The summer of '89?"

Oh. _That_.

Castiel pulled a face. "Why do you keep bringing that up?"

They had been seven years old at the time, on the fateful day that Jimmy liked to bring up during situations like this. The two of them had been packaged off to stay with Gabriel and his many half siblings in the countryside for the entire summer, and had made a habit of sneaking off at night to go and watch the stars from under the big apple tree growing at the bottom of the garden. It was on this particular night, their last night there before they returned home to Kansas, that the younger (but only by two minutes) Novak had breached some kind of conversation.

"Jim-Jim?" Cas had begun slowly, cautiously, quietly mumbling his brother's childhood nickname.

"Cassie?" Jimmy had replied.

"Can I ask you a question?"

"Okay. What is it?"

"How do you know when you love someone?"

"Love?" Jimmy had glanced at him, surprised. "Why do you want to know?"

"I asked Mommy this afternoon when she called," Cas began, eyes closed. "And she said that I'd understand when I was older. But I don't want to wait until I'm older." He sounded a little put out, and he'd pouted at this, if Jimmy remembered it correctly. "I want to know _now._ That's why I asked in the first place."

Jimmy had snorted quietly. "Then why are you asking me?"

"Because you're clever," Cas had explained simply. "Besides, Gabe wouldn't tell me either. Neither would Anna, or Michael, or Lucifer. They all just said I'll understand later on or I'd work it out in my own time - whatever that means - so I have to ask you."

Jimmy shook his head. He was only seven after all - how was _he_ supposed to know about love? - but Cas was looking at him now, with the same big blue eyes that Jimmy had, and he had found himself sighing.

"I think it's complicated. That's why they don't want to tell you. They don't want your head imploding."

"My head won't implode!" Castiel had assured him eagerly. "I promise, Jim-Jim! Tell me! Please!"

Jimmy let out a huff. Being the older brother by two minutes really was a tough job.

"Fine. But don't tell Mommy I told you, okay?"

"I won't!" Cas sat up, looking over at his twin.

Jimmy rested his weight on his elbow. "Loving someone - Well, I don't know, but Uriel says that being in love is like finding the best candy corn flavour in the world."

"Uriel doesn't know anything about love!"

"He does! He says he's in love with that girl Hester from fifth grade! And Roger agreed with him, and Roger's been in love with Chloe since Kindergarten, so he should know!"

"What did he say?" Cas pressed anxiously. "How did he know?"

"He said that he always smiles around Chloe, even when he's really sad. All she has to do is take his hand and he feels warm inside, like the sun is filling his chest." He had let out a snort. "Mommy says that she doesn't think Roger knows what he's talking about. She thinks that he likes the sound of his own voice. He does talk a lot, after all." He shook his head. "Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why did you want to know about love?" When met with silence, a smile started climbing across Jimmy's face. "Cassie? Do _you_ love somebody?"

"Maybe."

"Ooh!" Jimmy had chortled. "Who?"

"It's a secret."

"I won't tell. You know I won't."

"Do you promise?"

"Yes!"

"Do you _really_ promise?"

"Cross my heart and hope to die," Jimmy had said, making the actions to match the words.

After a few silent moments of narrowed eyes, Cas conceded, relaxing. "Okay." He took a deep breath, before mumbling something inaudible.

"What?" Jimmy had leant closer. "I couldn't hear that."

His brother stifled a giggle. "Dean."

" _Dean?_ "

Cas had nodded, a sudden look of excitement in his eyes that hadn't been there a second before.

"How can you tell?"

"Dean makes me very happy," his twin replied. "And I held his hand before we left, when we were saying goodbye, and I felt warm inside, just like Roger said!" He had looked hopeful. "This means I love Dean, doesn't it? Doesn't it, Jim-Jim?"

" _Castiel and Dean, sittin' in a tree,_ " his brother had sung teasingly as a way of reply, feeling his own mouth twitch into a smile at the expression on Castiel's face. " _K-I-S-S-I-N-G._ "

Now, Jimmy snorted. "You're asking me why I keep bringing it up? Why do you think I keep bringing it up? You admitted to crushing on your best friend - your male best friend, I might add."

"We were seven when we had that conversation!"

"So?"

" _So?_ That was twenty six years ago!"

"Yeah. And? What's that got to do with anything?"

"Twenty six _years_ , Jimmy! I didn't understand what love means like I do now! Dean and I aren't the second graders who held hands before we said goodbye that summer and then thought it was love anymore - and that's if Dean even thought of it as love, which I'm pretty sure he did not. We're adults now, living in the _real_ world. Besides -" His voice grew quieter, his words almost mumbled "- it's not like anything would have come of it, anyway."

"Oh, no. _No_." Jimmy jabbed his lollipop in Cas' direction, making his twin duck out of the way to avoid getting the sleeve of his coat sticky. "You are _not_ doing the puppy dog eyes again, just because Dean enjoys getting it on with women."

"Tact was always one of your better points, Jimmy," Cas muttered.

"Besides, it's not as if you're exactly out of options," Jimmy said, carrying on as if his brother hadn't spoken. "I mean, he or she or whoever's writing these is clearly infatuated with you and appealing to your mushy side - don't start denying it now, I've seen you sneaking those chick flicks when you think no one else is around." Cas had opened his mouth to try and protest, but promptly closed it again when he realised that whatever he said at this point would be pointless. "If you really wanna take your mind off of relationship troubles of the past, then I might have an idea."

Against his better judgement, Cas glanced towards his brother. "Oh, yes? Like what?"

"Well, this is how I'm seein' things." Jimmy cleared his throat, as if he was about to read aloud some kind of great proclamation. "These cheesy pieces of paper keep appearing the chute, right?"

"Yes."

"So, logically, the person sending them must work in the library. Or, at least, someone who's in there a lot, who would have access to the chute, yes?"

"I suppose so. But, I don't understand what that's got to do with anything."

"And therefore, _logically_ -" Jimmy emphasised the word "- there's a way to work out who your secret admirer is, isn't there?"

Cas let out a noise at the back of his throat that sounded like a fusion of a laugh and a startled cough. "You mean, date everyone there to work out who it is? Hm. I don't think that's such a great idea, Jimmy."

"Actually, I was going to suggest just asking people, but I guess that works too."

"Somehow I doubt that."

"And why's that?"

"We're thirty three, Jimmy. Not thirteen. This is real life, not an episode of whatever sitcom Gabriel's got you hooked on now."

"Hey, this was _your_ suggestion, not mine." His brother folded his arms, biting in the lollipop still in his mouth. "If you can't even take your own advice, then you can sit in your room and puzzle over this alone. I'm just trying to help, after all."

They sat in stubborn silence for a few minutes, the only noise being the unhealthy growling from underneath the car's hood. Cas made a mental note to drive the car over to Bobby's garage later on to get that looked at, whilst he contemplated Jimmy's words. He was right in one respect; only someone who was frequently around in the library could get the notes into the chute when they did. But he had only been introduced to three employees and one customer so far, which meant that the only options so far were Metatron (which was unlikely, since Cas was pretty sure he was the type of person who didn't care for romance), Samandriel (a young blonde who he swore he had seen making out with a girl in a dark alleyway one time), favoured-by-God Hannah, and -

"Oh, God. _Meg_."

Jimmy sent him a confused look. "Who's Meg?"

Cas ignored the question. No. It couldn't be Meg. It couldn't be. He'd seen how easily she became bored with things; she wouldn't be able to keep the same prank going for three days without getting any kind of response from it. So, did that mean she actually...?

No. Cas pushed that thought from his mind as fast and as far as it would go.

"Do you really think that would work?"

"What, the dating thing?" Jimmy nodded. "Well, yeah. 'Course. As long as you're not an ass about it."

"How does one _not_ be an ass about these things?" His twin wondered aloud.

"Cassie, I'm sure that you have the natural charm to allure a man or woman of your choosing hidden underneath that trenchcoat somewhere. Hey, you may even find someone you really like, someone you can settle down with." Jimmy paused as he finished his sentence, as if he was silently adding _And get your mind off Dean_ onto the end of his words.

Not that he needed to, of course, Cas quickly reasoned. He was an adult now, after all. He wasn't going to pine after Dean like a lovesick teenager.

Not that he pining after Dean or anything.

Nope.

Not at all.

"Okay," he said suddenly, startling his brother. "I'll think about it."

"Seriously? You're actually taking something I say into consideration?" Jimmy's lips quirked up into a smirk. "Now _this_ I gotta see."

"Don't get too excited." Cas rolled his eyes. "I haven't agreed to anything yet."

"We'll see." Was all Jimmy said. "We shall see, Cassie."

Cas gave him a gentle poke in the ribs. "As you say, Jim-Jim."

" _Jim-Jim?_ Really? Didn't we agree to drop that nickname when we turned thirteen?"

"Didn't we _also_ agree to drop Cassie too? I seem to have noticed _that_ nickname hasn't gone away."

"What can I say? You're just too endearing, baby brother."

"Two minutes, Jimmy. _Two_."

" _It may as well be two years_ ," Jimmy replied in a sing-song voice. Cas simply stuck his tongue out in response.

* * *

Once Jimmy had been delivered to the kitchen and fixed himself up a plate of sandwiches, Cas decided to take the car around to Bobby's garage. Bobby Singer had been a family friend of the Winchesters and the Novaks for years - John, Dean's late father, and he had started the garage business up together when they were in their early twenties - and Cas couldn't remember a single Christmas time when he hadn't seen the man sitting next to Jimmy and waiting for Mary to bring out her famous seasonal Christmas cake. Bobby had ended up passing on all of his mechanical knowledge onto Dean, who had taken over John's position when he passed away and had now been working in the garage for ten years, which was always handy when one of them needed their cars fixing up, Cas more than most. It had only been three months since his last visit.

Bobby leant through the open window when the car rolled to a creaky stop beside him. "You back in here again, boy?"

Cas gave a shrug. "What can I say? Car troubles are persistent."

"They've been persistent for twelve years now," Bobby grumbled, moving to let Cas get out of the driver's side. "There's only so many times we can salvage what's left o'this heap of junk." He nudged the tires of the car with his the cap of his boots, before calling to someone over his shoulder. "Chucklehead. Someone's here to see ya. I can take over here for a few minutes."

Dean's face appeared from under a nearby vehicle, dirty and oil stained, but smiling. "Hey, look who's decided to show!" He rolled out from under the car completely, rising to his feet, wiping his hands on a scrap of rag that was already covered in smudged fingerprints. "What brings ya here to our little corner of Kansas, Cas?"

"The usual." Cas rested his weight against the workbench as Dean lifted the hood of his car to examine the problem.

"Is this old thing seriously still worth savin'?" Dean asked, reaching into his tool box for a spanner and starting to poke about in amongst the wires and tubes, mechanical things that Cas didn't really understand, no matter how many times Dean had tried to tutor him on the art of fixing up cars. "Didn't you say that your dad drove this when he went to college in the seventies?"

"Yes, he did. But I can hardly afford a new car on a librarian salary." Cas let out a snort and raised an eyebrow.

Dean let out a chuckle. "Still mind-numbin'ly dull up there, then?"

"I don't know. Perhaps." There was a pause. "Hey, Dean?"

"Hm?"

"May I ask you something?"

Dean peered out from under the hood. "Do you really still have to ask that, Cas? After all this time? We've been tellin' each other everythin' since we were in Kindergarten."

"It's the principle of things."

"Right." Dean smirked mirthfully. "Well, what's up, then, buddy?"

"If you had a chance to find someone who you liked but you weren't really sure about it, what would you do?"

"Wow. Pretty vague, Cas. You might need to elaborate a little there."

"Just something Jimmy was saying to me earlier -"

"Wait, you're actually takin' somethin' Jimmy says seriously?" Dean barked out a laugh. "Now this I gotta see."

"Why does everyone keep saying that?" Cas wondered aloud.

Dean shook his head. "Never mind. What was he sayin'?"

"We were talking about dating," the Novak began, picking at one of the buttons on his coat.

"Oh, yeah? Has he finally decided to get a move on and ask that Amelia chick out to dinner?"

"Not quite. We were talking about me, actually." Cas opened the driver's door, reached towards the dashboard, and brought out a handful of notes. "I keep finding these everywhere."

"What?" Dean poked his head out from under the hood, dropping his tools in order to get a closer look at the paper in his best friend's hand.

"These notes. Someone keeps posting them down the returns chute, always when I'm on my shift." Cas watched him flicking through all of them. "Jimmy said that he thought it was someone working there, and the only person I can think of who would be doing this is Meg, and she...well, she and I aren't exactly what you would call friends. But, see, she wouldn't go to all this trouble just for a prank - she gets disinterested by things so easily - so, maybe..." He trailed off. "So, what do you think? What should I do?" Dean stayed silent for a moment, looking back over the notes before slowly handing them back to Castiel, one by one.

"I think," he said finally, as if he was weighing up his words carefully, "that you should do whatever you think will make you happy."

Cas frowned. "Now I think _you're_ the one who needs to elaborate, Dean."

His best friend's mouth pulled into a half smile. "Gotta keep my sense of mystery, haven't I?" He slammed the car's hood down. "We've probably got some stuff for the engine that you can use if it starts to get bad again. Might keep the old thing runnin' for a little while longer." He started towards the office at the back of the garage, pulling his phone from his pocket and dialling a number; he was too far away for Cas to hear what he was saying, but, judging by the expression on his face and the way that he was waving his free hand around in mid air as he searched through the boxes of junk that Bobby liked to keep out of the way, it sounded important.

Cas crinkled the edges of the paper in his hands as he watched. It was probably nothing to worry about, of course, but even so, Dean was his best friend. (Jimmy's face in the car during their reminiscing of the summer of 1989 came to mind and he quickly shut that down as fast as he could.)

What kind of best friend didn't worry, after all?

* * *

 **Until the next time, my little sock puppets... :) X**


	3. Confidant

_**3.**_ _Confidant_

 _Hey handsome, you_ _'re_ _look_ _ing_ _sexy today. How do I know? Because you look sexy everyday._

Cas toyed with the piece of paper in his hands, using his thumb to smooth out the crinkled corners. He'd been awake for most of the night, sitting at the kitchen table with a warm mug of tea, just thinking about what he was going to do, after Jimmy's reassurance and Dean's vague, off-hand comment about being happy. Even as the clock ticked closer to four in the morning, Cas hadn't been pluck a solution out of the air on his own. In the end, he'd decided that he needed another opinion on the matter.

Taking a deep breath, he gave three light knocks on the door in front of him.

"It's open!"

Cas pushed the door open, peering around the office. Metatron was seated at his desk, fingers hammering down on the keys of a typewriter, his glasses sliding down his nose, his brow furrowed in concentration. Sheets of A4 paper were scattered everywhere, covering the entire surface of the cluttered desk, neat lines of dark writing printed onto them.

"Metatron?"

Without looking up from his typewriter, Metatron made a sweeping gesture with one hand. "Ah, Castiel. I was wondering when I'd have the pleasure of seeing you in my office. Please, take a seat."

The younger man did so, pausing to rescue one of the pieces of paper that were collectively about to slide off the desk. "So, uh, what are you doing? Are you working on the new catalogue, or -?"

"No, no." Metatron fed another sheet of paper into the machine, continuing to type almost immediately. "This is a story, Castiel."

"I see -"

"A marvellous story." Metatron carried on as if he hadn't spoken. "Full of love, and...heartbreak, and..." He struggled to find another adjective to describe just _how_ marvellous this story actually was. "...love."

Castiel's eyebrow rose in interest. "You're a romance writer?" He glanced down at the sheet of paper in his hands, fresh from the typewriter.

 _"Wait, Steve." Michael reached out and grabbed his friend's shoulder before he could climb out of the car. "I can't let you do this."_

 _"Michael?" Steve's voice was soft, concerned. "What's wrong?"_

 _His friend opened his mouth to speak, but paused, wetting his lips as he tried to sum up everything he was thinking._

 _"Are you really wearing that?" He said finally. "On a date?"_

 _Steve glanced down at his attire, his plain shirt, patterned vest and dark slacks, one of the few outfits that he'd owned since he'd graduated high school. "These are all I have, Michael."_

 _"Well, then,_ _looks like_ _we're just gonna have to improvise." Michael looked his friend up and down, dropping his grip on his shoulder. "Hm. Lose the vest."_

 _Steve blinked._ _Whatever he had been expecting Michael to say, it hadn't been that._ _"Excuse me -?"_

 _"Just, trust me on this one. Lose the vest." The other man hesitated for a moment, before complying, tugging his dark blue vest from his body and discarding it in the back seat._

 _"Is this any better?" He asked. Michael gave another humming noise; Steve noticed that his grip on the steering wheel had tightened slightly._

 _"Yeah," he said suddenly. "Yeah, that's a little better. Why don't you...?" He gestured with a nod of his head. "Why don't you unbutton that a little bit?"_

 _Steve's fingers paused in mid air. "Is this for my benefit or for yours, Michael?"_

 _"I don't know," Michael replied, voice almost a whisper._

"Yes, well -" The paper suddenly vanished from his hands. "- that's quite enough about that." Metatron shuffled his pile of work, before placing it neatly in the tray beside him and removing his glasses, chewing the end of them as he watched the employee opposite him. "Now, Castiel, what was it that you needed, hm? Are there any problems I should know about?"

"No, no; I was actually wondering if I could ask for your advice on something."

"Advice? From me?" The man looked amused. "Well, then, if that's the case, ask away."

"It's about Meg."

Metatron's cheerful disposition slipped as he let out a sigh. "What has she done now? I've told her to leave you alone, but she doesn't seem to get the message. Don't worry yourself about it too much, Castiel. Sooner or later, she'll find someone else to tease in her spare time -"

"No, no, it's not about that," Cas interrupted quickly, too quickly to sound realistic. "Definetly not about that. I wanted to ask if you think she'd accept my invitation to dinner tonight." He bit his lip to try and keep his expression straight. The thought of going out to dinner with Meg - _alone_ \- made him downright uncomfortable; he had never quite got the hang of sarcasm, and Meg seemed to use it a lot.

A lot meaning in every other sentence that came from her mouth.

Metatron's brows knitted together. "Dinner? You and Meg? As in...as in, _dinner_ dinner?"

"Yes."

"Alone? Together?"

"Yes."

"Are you _sure_ about that, Castiel?"

"Is this your way of telling me that she'll say no?" Cas' eyebrow quirked up.

"No, no..." Metatron didn't look or sound like he meant it. "...no. Just, well, Meg can be a little...well, I've sure you've realised what she can be like. A lovely girl, of course, but..." He'd certainly changed his tune, Cas thought, thinking back to Metatron's assertion about just how great Meg was with children and how adored she was by them."Are you really _sure_ that you want to go down this road?"

"I wouldn't be asking you for advice if I wasn't sure."

"You really want my advice on this one, Castiel?" The older man let out something that resembled a laugh - or maybe it was actually a noise of fear for him; Cas wasn't entirely sure which. "Don't let her anywhere near an open bar. She can be a mean drunk; trust me, I know this from three years of experience at our annual Christmas parties."

That certainly hadn't been the kind of advice that he'd been expecting to hear from someone like Metatron. "O...kay? I'll, um, take that into consideration."

"Make sure that you do. Now, if that's all you had to ask me, I must be getting on." He patted the pile of papers beside him. "Novels don't exactly write themselves, after all."

"Of course not." Cas gave a solemn nod, rising from the seat, hands resting against his slacks. "Thank you for your time."

"Good luck with that dinner," Metatron called after him, adding "You're going to need it," quietly under his breath when he thought that the younger man was out of earshot and couldn't hear him.

 _Believe me, Metatron,_ _I don't doubt that_ , Cas thought warily.

* * *

Unlike when he was trying to avoid running in to her, Meg wasn't hard to find. She was slumped behind the customer service counter, as usual, busying herself with sticking post-it notes to every available surface that she could see.

Cas gave a nervous cough when he approached her, clutching at the small pile of books in his arms like they offered him some sort of protection from her sarcasm. "Um, hello, Meg."

She frowned, glancing at him out of the corner of her eye. "Can I help you, Clarence?" She asked, in a tone of voice that told him that, regardless of what he said, she was bored of the entire conversation and therefore wasn't going to help him anyway.

"I was just, um, wondering..." Cas trailed off, not sure where to look or what to do; in the end, he settled for placing his books down for a moment and shuffling some loose sheets of paper that Meg had discarded at some point. "...how are you?" He winced; even for _him_ , that was bad. Jimmy would be having a field day right now. He could imagine his twin doubling over in laughter, trying to muffle his expression with his hand but failing miserably at it.

"How _am_ I?" The girl repeated in disbelief, eyebrow raised.

"Yes." Cas cleared his throat and gave a sharp nod. "How are you, Meg?"

" _Ecstatic_ ," she deadpanned. "Just freakin' ecstatic, Clarence. Can you go away now? Or was there something _else_ that you wanted to bug me about?"

"No - I mean, yes - Well, not really, -" _Stop, Cas!_ "I mean, er -"

"Spit it out, Clarence, sheesh, or we'll be here until Christmas."

"I was wondering if I could ask you something."

"Ask _me_ something? Like what?" She folded her arms across her chest. "What could _you_ possibly have to ask me? In fact, do you know what? Don't tell me."

"But -"

"You can ask me at dinner tonight."

Cas blanched. " _Excuse_ _me_?"

"I _said_ ," Meg repeated, slower this time, as if he had been too mentally incompetent to understand the first time, "you can ask me at dinner tonight. Pick me up at seven. Here." She reached for the pad of sticky notes and scrawled something across the first post-it, before ripping it off and sticking it to Castiel's forehead with the flat of her palm before he could duck down out of her way. "That's my address and cellphone number. I look forward to dinner." She let out a final sniff, as if trying to prove to him just how dignified she was, before scooting past him, leaving Cas dumbly staring after her, wondering just what on earth he'd done to cause that to happen.

* * *

"Jimmy?" Cas fidgeted, wringing his hands together as he stared at his reflection in the hallway mirror, his light blue tie hanging limply around his neck. Had getting ready for dates _always_ been this stressful? He didn't remember all this from the very few dates that he actually went on during college. Had he just forgotten it in his old age? Wasn't he supposed to be over all this awkwardness at thirty three?

"Yeah?" Jimmy materialised in the kitchen doorway, breadstick in hand. He whistled when he saw his twin's attire. "Sheesh. You're wearing a suit. You're actually wearing a proper freaking suit, not just those shirts and slacks you've been wearing since you graduated college. What's the occasion? The Lonely Hearts club meeting tonight or something?"

Cas rolled his eyes as his brother snickered at his own joke. "Actually, Jimmy, I've got a date. A date which I'm going to be _late_ for if you don't help me with this tie."

Jimmy almost choked on his current mouthful of food. "Whoa, whoa, whoa. Back up a freaking second... _you've_ got a date? Like a real date? With another human being?"

"Yes, Jimmy, a real date with another human being," Cas repeated in exasperation. "Will we have to go through this every time? Now, will you please help me with this tie?"

"Isn't that _my_ tie?" His twin asked, amusement in his voice as he finished his snack, brushed the crumbs from his fingertips, and then grabbed the two ends of the tie and looped them effortlessly around Castiel's neck. "There. Was that so hard?"

"I don't exactly own much in the way of formal attire," Cas admitted, giving his reflection another once over in the mirror, smoothing down the wrinkles in his suit jacket. He missed wearing his trenchcoat, however impractical it was at times. It was familiar, safe, almost like battle armour.

Jimmy snorted when he voiced this opinion. "Can't keep yourself stuck in what's safe forever, Cassie. Sad fact of life. You gotta get out there. Take risks. Make mistakes. Do stupid things and fall in love ten times and get your heart broken twenty times more. That's the only way life will truly be worth living. Only then will you know when you're truly happy." Cas blinked at his brother, his jaw starting to fall slack. "What?" Jimmy's brow pulled into a frown. "Why're you lookin' at me like that? Was it something I said?"

"Jimmy..." Cas swallowed. "That might just have been the greatest thing you've ever said."

"What do you mean?" Jimmy gave him a lopsided smile. " _All_ the things I've ever said are great. They're nuggets of wisdom to be treasured forever."

There was the twin brother he knew. Cas rolled his eyes. "Maybe I should start following your word literally more often, Jimmy."

"Not maybe. Definitely."

"Right." A mirthful chuckle escaped Cas' lips, before he reached for his keys, lying on the table in the hallway. "I'll see you later. Don't stay up too late now."

"Sure thing, _Mom_ ," Jimmy replied mockingly. "I'll be in bed by eight thirty as agreed." He snorted after Castiel's retreating form. "Honestly, Cassie. What am I, ten?"

Cas cast his eyes up towards the heavens at the comment, almost walking directly into Gabriel in the process, who was making his way up the front path.

"Wow!" He exclaimed when he did a double take. "Cassie! What's the occasion? Lonely Hearts Club?"

"That's what I said!" Jimmy chortled.

God, for people who weren't even full siblings, Jimmy and Gabriel were scarily similar, Cas thought. "I've got a date," he said in response to Gabriel's question.

The oldest Novak was silent for a moment, before he burst into a loud peal of laughter, great roaring howls that echoed back down the front path and straight across the street. Cas was surprised that the neighbours hadn't burst forth from their houses to complain about the sudden commotion, or at least called an ambulance - Gabriel did sound a little like a poor dying animal, after all.

He scrubbed away a tear drop from his eyes as he sucked in a sharp breath, letting out a few hiccups as he did so. "Oh, Cassie," he sighed, once he'd regained his ability to speak. "You're hilarious. Now, seriously, where you off to?" His query was met with silence. "What?" He glanced between Cas' unimpressed expression and Jimmy's raised eyebrow. "Oh. You were...you were being serious?"

"What gave it away?"

"Sheesh. I can't believe it. Cassie's finally got himself a date." Gabriel put a hand over his heart. "Wow. You hear that, Jim-Bob? Cassie's got a date. He's growing up at last. I think I'm getting a little emotional."

"Yes, well, why don't you go be emotional inside, Gabriel?" Cas suggested sarcastically. "I'm not going to even get to my date at this rate."

"Ooh, _ouch_." Gabriel winced. "Does dating make everyone this crabby, or is it just Castiel? Because I swear I do not act like this every time I take Samwich out to dinner. And I bet you won't act like this when you eventually get your head outta your ass, Jim, and ask that Amelia chick out for coffee."

"Shut up." Jimmy's red cheeks were illuminated in the glaring lights of the hallway. "We're just friends."

"Friends? Right. You're as much friends as me and Sam are..."

The sound of their bickering faded into the background as Cas managed to escape down the garden path, fiddling with the cuff links on his sleeves as he climbed into his car (that Gabriel had practically parked on top of, he might add) and swerved out into the road.

After searching for directions to Meg's address on the Internet, it turned out that she didn't actually live too far away from the house belonging to the Novak twins, and sooner rather than later, Castiel found himself idling outside Meg's, stuck sitting in the car, unsure of whether or not to venture up the garden path. He hadn't been deliberating for more than five minutes, when he heard his cellphone sounding from where he'd stuffed it into the glove compartment earlier that afternoon; he rescued it, waiting patiently for the screen to load.

 _I can see you sitting outside, you doofus. Get your ass over here, Clarence. [Sent 19.00]_

Well, that was the end of that plan, then (although how Meg had gotten hold of his cellphone number, he wasn't entirely sure). Cas sucked in a breath and forced himself to get out of the car, making his way up the concrete walkway, giving three sharp taps on the front door when he reached it. Meg opened it merely a second later, eyebrow raised.

"You're late," she snorted.

"No, I'm not. It's seven o'clock; Well, okay -" He checked his watch " - technically it's one minute past seven, but -"

"Maybe if you hadn't been sitting in your car for the past twenty years you would have been on time," Meg replied, grabbing her jacket from the coat peg by the door and locking up behind her. "So, where're we going?"

* * *

"Ugh." Meg picked at the plate of food in front of her, letting a leaf of lettuce slide from her fork. "What the hell is this crap? This isn't food. How can people _like_ coming here?" She seized her glass and drained the last drop of liquid from it. "Ugh," she repeated. "I'm getting some more of this."

"Uh -" Metatron's "advice" came flooding back. "Meg, I really don't think -"

Meg silenced him with an angry look. "Just shut up and eat your salad, Clarence," she said, before rising from her seat and making her way over to the bar on the other side of the room, giving Cas time to contemplate how exactly this disastrous evening had occurred and why he ever thought it was a good idea. And he hadn't even asked Meg about the notes yet - although, if it really _was_ her sending them, wouldn't she be showing more...well, more of anything than just snark? Wouldn't she be acting like she actually wanted to be there, instead of standing across the other side of the room and arguing with the bar tender?

Cas reached into his pocket and brought out his cell.

 _Dean. Help me. Please. [Sent 20.42]_

 _Why?_ The reply was almost instantaneous. _What'cha done now? [Sent 20.43]_

 _Something terrible. [Sent 20.43]_

 _Can't be that bad, Cas. [Sent 20.44]_

 _Oh, it is. [Sent 20.44]_

 _Fine. It is. What's up? [Sent 20.44]_

 _I'm on a date. And it's awful. How do I cope with this? [Sent 20.45]_

 _Wait, wait, you're on a DATE?! [Sent 20.45]_

 _Yes, Dean. Try to focus on the problem at hand, please. [Sent 20.46]_

 _Cas, not every hook-up is perfect. You just struck out on this one. Sorry, buddy. [Sent 20.46]_

Meg slammed her empty glass back on the table, signalling her arrival. "This place sucks," she declared loudly, causing several other customers to turn and glance in their direction.

"I think it's time we go now," Cas suggested, leaving a roll of bills underneath their unfinished plates as he rose from his seat, eager to get out of the public spotlight.

"Finally," Meg muttered, letting him lead her out of the entrance and into the brightly lit parking lot where his car was patiently waiting.

Cas made a mental note, as he got behind the wheel, to never show his face in this particular restaurant ever again.

The drive back to Meg's place thankfully went as quickly as it had done when Cas had set off earlier that evening. Meg switched the radio off as soon as it sprung into life, her eyes fixed shrewdly on the road ahead of them, illuminated by the car's headlights, which suited Castiel just fine at the end of the day.

"So." He broke the awkward silence between them as they sat in front of her house, unsure of what to do now. "This was certainly...interesting; I hope - mmph!" He was cut off by Meg grabbing him by the shoulders and slamming their lips together, Cas' arms flailing, caught somewhere between the wheel and the door. She pulled away after a long moment, scrubbing her mouth with the back of her hand as she did so.

"Okay, Clarence. Now that we've got that crap out of the way, what's this dinner thing about?"

"I -"

"C'mon. You clearly don't want to be here with me, I get that. So, what's this really been about? Why did you ask me out in the first place?"

Cas paused, debating whether or not to correct her about how it was actually her who had demanded to be taken to dinner and not the other way around, before he reached into the glove compartment and tossed the notes at her. "These, Meg. Did you write these?"

"What?" She frowned, opening up one of the notes. " _If you were a fish, I'd be the sea, because you're the only fish in the sea for me_ \- Ew! _No!_ God, you seriously think I'd write such sappy crap as this? Please. Quite frankly, I'm insulted you'd even think it was me in the first place."

"So, you're not -..." Cas' whole body relaxed in relief at this revelation. Meg raised an eyebrow at his reaction and he quickly scrambled to defend himself. "I mean, er, you're a lovely woman, but I just don't -"

"Oh, please, Clarence, cut that crap right now. You can't stand me, I can't stand you, and we both know it. However..." she smirked, shuffling forward suggestively. " _Maybe_ we could get to know each other a little bit _better_."

Cas leaned away. " _Meg_ -"

She chortled. "Jesus Christ, you seriously don't like me, huh? Relax, I'm not gonna have my way with you when you're not looking. I was merely going to offer you my help."

He frowned. "Your help? With what? What could I possibly need your help with?"

"This." She dumped the crumpled notes into his lap. "You need someone else on the inside besides you, after all, and I wouldn't risk going to Metatron about this stuff. He wouldn't know romance if it bit him on the ass in broad daylight."

"He's a romance writer," Castiel replied in confusion. "Isn't he supposed to thrive on this stuff?"

"Metatron? A romance writer? You mean that dusty old manuscript that he's been working on for the past three years? Huh!" Meg snorted, not even bothering to cover up her scorn. "Trust me, Clarence, that man will do you no favours if you go to him about this. I, on the other hand...could be of great use." She threw him a wink.

Cas thought about it for a few long minutes. "Okay. Fine. I need all the help I can get, after all."

"Great. Call me, then. We'll negotiate the first moves tomorrow."

"We will?"

She gave him a pitying look as she scrambled out of the passenger seat. "Yes, Clarence. We will. Oh, and by the way..." She turned back to face him. "That was the worst kiss I've ever had."

With that, she slammed the car door and turned on her heel, leaving Cas, once more, staring in silence after her, and wondering how on earth it had gotten to this.


	4. Magical Mystery Midnight Tour

_**4.**_ _Magical Mystery Midnight Tour_

The house seemed quiet when Cas eventually unlocked his own front door and stepped into the hallway, shrugging off his suit jacket and dumping it on the table along with his keys. He let out a heavy sigh, running a hand through his dark hair as he kicked his shoes off and wandered through into the kitchen, flicking the light on as he did so. Going by the lack of murmuring coming from the television, it sounded like Jimmy had turned in early for the night - which was good, because, as much as he loved his mirror self (for Jimmy sometimes knew things about him that Cas wasn't even aware of), he didn't particularly want to discuss the ins and outs of his horrible date just yet. He plucked a glass from the cupboard and poured himself some water, glad of the refreshment. He hadn't exactly gotten to relax much during the course of the evening.

"Well, well, well, look what the cat's just dragged in."

Cas' gulp got caught in his throat and he spluttered, showing his one good professional-looking shirt in water. "What the -?"

Gabriel smirked, leaning against the door frame, hands stuffed into the pockets of his jacket. "Dammit, why do I never have a camera on hand when I need one? That was the best reaction I think I've ever seen. I could have won a couple hundred bucks off of that."

"What the hell are you still doing here, Gabe?" Cas wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, placing his glass on the counter before he could have anymore water-related mishaps. "Jimmy's already done for the day."

"Actually -" Gabriel raised an eyebrow "- he's waiting in the car for us. We're going out."

" _We_ are?" Cas blinked in confusion at his brother's use of pronoun. "Who's _we_?"

"Us. You, me, Jim-Bob, Samsquatch and Deano." The blonde's eyes gleamed. "Oh, c'mon, have you seriously forgotten what day it is today?"

"Thursday?"

"Nope. Guess again!" Gabriel barked out a laugh when he was met with silence from the younger Novak. "It's Magical Mystery Tour day!"

Now it was Cas' turn to laugh. "Are you serious? Gabriel, we haven't celebrated Magical Mystery Tour day since we were fifteen and in freshman year."

The premise of Magical Mystery Tour day had been rather simple. It was something that Dean had started when they were young, becoming inspired after seeing the animated Robin Hood movie for the first time. All of them - the Novaks and the Winchesters - went into town for the day, usually dressed in a costume of some kind, in search of their own adventures. The year that Cas could most vividly remember was the year that they'd sneaked into the playground of their old elementary school (Gabriel had found a gap in the fence, just large enough for them to squeeze through) and spent the day running wild without adult supervision of any kind; he remembered crouching under the slide, Dean shushing him from his side as he failed to stifle his giggling, and sitting on the tarmac and eating the cheese spread sandwiches that Mary had packed for them after they'd solemnly promised to take good care of little Sammy.

Now, Gabriel snorted. "Well, me and Samwich decided that it was about time that we celebrated it again, now that we're old and no longer the cool kids that had a reputation to maintain like we were in high school."

" _Cool kids_. Right."

"Well, okay, maybe _cool_ was a bit of a stretch when describing you..."

Typical Gabriel. Cas tried to resist rolling his eyes at his older brother. "That being said, Gabe, I don't really feel like going anywhere right now. I've just spent the last two hours out on a date."

"I knew you'd say that. Which is exactly why we need to have a Magical Mystery Tour day, to get over the horror that your date became."

"Seriously, Gabriel, I appreciate the sentiment, honestly I do, but all I really want to do is get into bed and sleep - Wait..." Cas paused, frowning. "How did _you_ know that my date went badly? I never mentioned how it went."

Gabriel snorted. "Cassie, it's you. Your dates _always_ go badly. That's kind of a given, well proven fact."

"Thank you for that vote of confidence, Gabriel."

"Plus, Dean told us about your conversation, so..."

"Of course he did."

"Don't look like that, Castiel!" If Gabriel were standing next to him, he probably would have clapped him on the back of the head. "This was his idea, you know. As a way to cheer you up because you're so bad at romance that Jimmy will ask Amelia out before you get anywhere yourself."

The younger Novak frowned, choosing to ignore the jib about his twin brother and his painfully obvious crush. "You just said that it was yours and Sam's idea -"

"Yeah, well, we decided where we were gonna go." Gabriel hastily added, shuffling, for once looking a little uncomfortable. "But, y'know, Dean was the one who started it. Honestly."

"Really?" Cas raised an eyebrow in disbelief. "What, he just suddenly announced that we should have Magical Mystery Tour again after all these years, and you all agreed to it immediately?"

"That's because, unlike you, I actually listen to my brother."

"You don't listen to us."

"Well -" Gabriel winked "- brother-in-law, I should say then. To be."

"Oh, yeah?" Cas smirked. "Forward planning, are we?"

"You can never be too prepared for these things, Cassie."

"Sam better watch out, then."

"Please," Gabriel scoffed. "I'm gonna sweep that giant moose off his large clown-sized feet, just you wait and see."

"You might have difficulty with that if you mean it literally."

"I didn't come here to listen to you being a smart ass, Cassie," Gabriel quipped, rolling his eyes. "I came here to pick you up - and, no, _not_ literally, before you open that freakin' wise-ass mouth of yours - and goddamn, that's what I'm gonna do. Now, grab your coat and let's haul ass outta here before Deano gets too impatient and Jim-Bob eats all of the supplies."

"Am I at least allowed to change first?" Cas glanced down at his water-soaked shirt.

Gabriel sighed melodramatically, as if this entire situation was of some great inconvenience to him - which, Cas suspected, it probably was; he wondered, for a moment, why Gabriel had even agreed to Dean's idea in the first place, because Gabriel never did _anything_ that caused him any kind of bother whatsoever.

"Sheesh, Cassie, this is _us_ we're talking about, not the freakin' Queen of England. You aren't going to get executed for wearing a damp shirt."

"Actually, the death penalty has been abolished in all circumstances in the UK since 1998 -"

"All I'm hearing is _blah, blah, blah, excuses_ ," Gabriel interrupted, using his sleeve as a hand puppet to mime what he perceived Castiel talking to look like.

"I'm not even wearing shoes."

"Oh, for -" Gabriel disappeared from the doorway and reappeared a moment later, chucking the pair of shoes across the floor."Honestly, I don't know what I'm going to do with you, Cassie." Cas pulled a face at him as he tugged his shoes on. "Now, c'mon, the night isn't getting any younger and neither are we." He marched over to where his younger half brother was standing and proceeded to drag him across the kitchen and into the hallway; Cas managed to grab his trenchcoat from the coat peg just before he was swept past, shrugging the familiar material over his shoulders, worrying his fingers at the bottom of his sleeves the way he'd always done when he needed to think straight.

He snorted when he noticed the car that Gabriel was leading him to, parked conveniently round the corner so that he wouldn't have spotted it when he'd pulled up outside the house. "Where the hell did you get that heap of junk?"

"You're saying that as if your car _isn't_ a heap of junk, Cassie. And I didn't get it from anywhere. Sam ran a few favours for Bobby this afternoon whilst Dean was out on an errand and so we got lease of the van for tonight. Don't worry." He threw his younger brother a wink. "Sam was trying to seat you in the back, but Jimmy got you moved up into the front seat, next to your best buddy Dean. He said you'd like that better than being crammed in the back with us."

Of course he did. Cas made a mental reminder to padlock the kitchen cupboards when they eventually got home again to stop Jimmy foraging in them during the early hours of the morning.

The elder Winchester was scowling when Cas climbed into the passenger seat beside him, greeting him with a nod. "Cas."

"Hello, Dean. What's wrong?"

"What's wrong? I feel like a freakin' soccor mom, Cas, that's what's wrong," Dean grumbled.

"But you look like a beautiful princess!" Gabriel called from the back seat, where he was casually laying his head on Sam's shoulder. "Well, not as beautiful as you, of course, Samsquatch."

"Oh God, Cas, shoot me now and let this end," Dean muttered, looking ready to slam his forehead into the steering wheel.

"Guys!" Jimmy swatted at them. "Seriously!"

Gabriel laughed, ruffling Sam's hair (or what little he could actually reach of it), making him let out a noise of protest and try to duck out of the Novak's grasp. "Uncomfortable, Jim-Bob? As I have stated many times, if you'd only get your head out of your ass and ask that Amelia chick out for a coffee sometime, you could have all o'this." He made another grab for Sam and succeeded this time, keeping an arm tightly wrapped around him.

Jimmy cleared his throat. "And, as _I_ have stated many times, I don't know what you're talking about. We're just friends."

"Yeah." Cas didn't miss the way that his half brother's eyes flickered to him and Dean in the front before returning to the other twin. " _Sure_ you are. Now, stop whining up front there, Deano, and step on the gas!"

Dean mumbled something about stepping on Gabriel in a minute if he didn't _goddamn pipe down_ , stomping down on the gas pedal and sending them all lurching forward in their seats as he got the van moving. He tried to get the radio working too, but gave up after a few minutes when he almost crashed into another vehicle due to being focused on something that was not looking at the road, a habit that Cas had berated him about many times when they had almost ended up driving head-on into a couple of brick walls.

"Hey," Gabriel said suddenly, breaking the peaceful silence. "Jim-Bob. Did I already tell you that we're getting a band started up?"

Sam let out a groan. "Gabe, c'mon, I was joking when I said that."

"And then I went and turned it into a reality, Samwich. Aw, don't pout at me like that, babe, it'll be great! You can play drums, I'll sing, Dean will play guitar -"

"Oh, I will, will I?" Dean took his eyes off the road to glare at Gabriel in the rearview mirror. "Don't I get a say in all this?"

"Nope," Gabriel replied simply, making a popping sound on the P. "What 'bout you, Jimmy? Cas? We need a couple of triangle players in the background - percussion, maybe?"

"I don't think so somehow. You're not dragging me into this. No way."

"Where's your sense of creativity, Jim-Bob?"

"Running amok," Jimmy quipped. "Along with your sense of dignity." Sam snorted at this.

Gabriel was frowning. "You'll all be regretting this when the band goes global. You'll be saying that you all knew that I was a genius when the fusion of punk and folk music takes over the world."

"Yes, I'm sure we will."

"Snark me all you like, Cassie." Gabriel rolled his eyes as Cas glanced at him over his shoulder. "But, remember, you'd be sitting at home doing nothing right now if Dean hadn't suggested this."

"I'd be _asleep_ ," Cas corrected. "Like a normal person who has to work."

"Oh, _I_ suggested this, did I?" Dean demanded at the same time, and shifted in his seat, disregarding the road entirely to send an incredulous expression in Gabriel's direction.

" _Yes_ , Dean. You did." Gabriel's voice had a sudden tone to it, one that Cas couldn't quite identify. " _You_ suggested this."

There was an awkward silence amongst the gathered group for a few minutes, broken only by the roar of the engine and the sound of Jimmy nibbling on a piece of cracker.

"Well," Cas said suddenly. "I think it was a good idea."

Dean inclined his head towards him. "You do?"

The younger Novak gave a shrug. "Sure. I mean, remember how much fun we had when we were kids. We haven't had fun like that in years."

"And you say _I'm_ childish," Jimmy commented, earning himself a kick in the shins courtesy of Gabriel.

Dean cleared his throat slightly, suddenly looking _very_ preoccupied with the dark stretch of road ahead of them for a change, as they neared the city limits and left the blazing street lights behind. "Well, then. I guess that, er, that was a good idea of mine, huh?"

Gabriel let out a snort from behind them. "Yes, Dean, the best idea you've ever had. The only idea you've ever had." The last part was muttered under his breath, although Dean obviously heard it, as his grip on the steering wheel tightened. "Hey," he began again, at normal volume this time. "Maybe we should all have a jolly singsong as we're going along."

" _No_ ," Cas, Dean, Sam and Jimmy all answered simultaneously.

Gabriel pulled a face. "You're supposed to argue on _my_ side, Sam. After all, you are my Samsquatch and I am your Angel Gabriel."

Dean let out a groan and muttered under his breath again, the words lost over the noise of the engine. Jimmy made a sound in the back of his throat as he tried to stifle the laughter at those words, going a little crimson in the face with the attempt of holding the sound - and the sarcasm - in. Sam's face was looking redder than usual too.

"I thought we agreed that we weren't gonna mention that in public," he muttered, making Jimmy snort through his nose.

"And _I_ thought boyfriends were supposed to support each other in all their musical-related conquests."

"You're freakin' awful."

"But you love me, Samwich." Gabriel smirked, trying to pin a kiss on the crown of Sam's head. "And I love you too."

"Oh, _Jesus_." Dean suddenly swerved around a bend in the road, sending them all tumbling to the left, breaking off Sam and Gabriel's little lovers' exchange.

"Didn't your father teach you anything about driving safely?" Cas fixed his best friend with a look. "I have to actually turn up for work tomorrow, after all."

"Yeah, Cas. He taught me to _block out distractions_." That last part was shouted over towards the back seat in Sam and Gabriel's direction; Gabriel flipped him off as a reply when he thought that no one was looking. They continued on in relative silence for another few minutes, Cas resting his forehead against the cool glass of the window, lulled by the dark shapes rushing by, too quickly for his eyes to try and decipher what these landmarks were.

He was on the verge of drifting off to sleep when Dean suddenly slammed on the brakes, sending his passengers hurtling forwards.

"I swear, you're drivin' on the way home, Sammy," he announced, having to wrestle with the lock on the door before he could climb out of the van. Cas was too busy staring out of the windshield to make any effort towards unlocking his own door.

"The forest? Really?"

"Why not the forest, Cassie?" Gabriel had materialised on his side, a picnic basket on his arm and a torch in one hand, and opened the door, nearly sending his younger half brother tumbling out of his seat and onto the ground. "Remember how much fun we used to have in there when we were kids?" Cas sent him a look, before glancing back at the silhouettes of the trees up ahead, and the one winding path that led straight into them. Gabriel was right in that sense; they had had many adventures in the forest when they were younger - but, of course, those had all been during the day. Forests were always less creepy during the day, especially when he was nine and had yet to read all of the horror novels that teenage Castiel liked to dabble in. Even so, he heaved himself out of the car, dragging a hand across his eyes to try and relieve the tiredness from them, and went to stand beside Jimmy, who was busy watching Dean try to study a map in the dark using just the light reflecting from his cellphone.

"Don't worry, Cas," his twin said when he noticed his brother approaching. "If you're worried, Dean can always hold your hand."

"Maybe you should have asked Amelia to come along too, then," Cas replied with a smirk. Jimmy let out a noise - the same noise he always made every time Amelia was brought up; Cas didn't need to be able to see in the dark to tell that he was shuffling.

"Right, then, you 'orrible lot!" Gabriel crowed in a terrible British accent, dragging their attention towards him. "Let's get a move on!" He clapped Sam on the shoulder. "Talley ho, Jeeves!"

"Never say that again, Gabe." Sam shook his head, took the torch from his boyfriend's grasp, and set off along the footpath, the beam of light from the torch disappearing into the undergrowth with him.

"Hey!" Gabriel began to pick up his pace, hurrying after him. "Sam! Samwich! Moosey!"

"Come _on_!" Sam's voice called in reply, sounding rather distant now that there was a layer of foliage between them. Cas and Jimmy trailed along behind, Dean rolling his eyes as he trudged a few steps after them. Cas didn't need his college education to gather that, regardless of whether he had actually suggested the idea for Magical Mystery Tour day or not, his best friend really really really didn't want to be here with them.

"How the hell are we supposed to see where we're going with those two leading the way?" Jimmy grumbled, gripping onto Cas' sleeve for support when he almost lost his balance after stumbling over a tree root that had burst up from below the surface.

"You aren't," Dean replied from somewhere close to Cas' right, making the younger twin start. "That's the mystery part. It's a mystery where to freakin' go."

"I heard that!" Gabriel's voice echoed from somewhere up ahead. "Stop whining back there, Deano, or I'll demote you to sit beside Jimmy on the ride home."

"Oh, _thanks_!"

"I don't know what you're complaining about," Jimmy cut in snippily. "You're not the one that's just been indirectly insulted."

They quickened their footsteps after that, for fear of losing sight of the dim circle of torchlight up ahead and the sound of Gabriel and Sam bickering over which path was the right one to take and which would be the quickest route back, and _Jesus Christ Sammy, would you stop with all this nature talk, you know Moose is just supposed to be a nickname, right?_ Eventually, the unlikely couple leading the way came to a sudden stop, pushing their way through a curtain of branches sweeping their way across the ground, leading out onto the top of a hill (Cas hadn't even realised that they had been travelling on an upwards slope until now); Below them, the lights of the town of Lawrence twinkled in the distance.

"Here we are." Gabriel plonked himself down on the grass and opened the picnic basket, bringing out a bag of sandwiches. "Cheese and ham, Moosey?"

Jimmy all but hurled himself to the ground, suddenly looking very interested now that there was food on the cards. Cas spread his trenchcoat across the grass underneath him like a blanket, reclining back so that he was looking up at the night sky and clusters of constellations that filled it until he felt his lids starting to drift shut.

"You sleepin' down there, Cas?" Cas cracked an eye open again in time to Dean lay back on the grass beside him, following his gaze up towards the heavens.

"Almost."

"Dinner took it out of you, huh?"

Cas let out a quiet snort. "If you were ever to take Meg Masters to dinner, Dean, you'd be reacting in exactly the same way." He ran a hand down his face just remembering the recent events of the evening. "It was the worst date of my life."

"And that's saying something," Gabriel snorted from beside him. Dean sent him a glare, before returning his full attention to his best friend.

"Really that bad, huh?"

"I think she ended up threatening the bar tender at one point," Cas admitted. Dean was silent for half a moment before he started snickering, the sound soon evolving into long peals of laughter that even Cas found himself joining in with.

"You sure know how to pick 'em, Cas," Dean said once their mirth had subsided. "Seriously, what is it with you and the crazy chicks? I mean, there was that girl April in college, the cash registrar, now this Meg girl..."

Cas nodded in agreement. His dating record wasn't exactly impressive nor extensive. "Maybe I'm just cursed."

"You only just figured that out? Cas, I coulda told you that years ago," Jimmy put in through a mouthful of food.

"Me too," Gabriel added.

"Nice to know that I have such a supportive family behind me," Cas commented, only to be met with chuckles from his two brothers. He closed his eyes again, folding his arms across his chest. Dean's sudden hand on his shoulder was the only thing that stopped him from dropping off to sleep right there and then.

"Hey, if it makes ya feel any better, Cas," his best friend began, "I'd still rather have you than this rabble. Cursed or not."

"Hey!" Sam protested, a teasing note to his voice, his words muffled a little; Cas suspected that he had his face nestled somewhere close to Gabriel. "What about me?"

"Sorry, Sammy. Sacrifices gotta be made."

"Jerk."

"Bitch."

Cas shook his head slightly as he listened to the brothers' usual exchange, shifting in order to get more comfortable, Dean's hand still warm and comforting on his shoulder; wrapped up in the familiar sounds of Jimmy and Gabriel laughing and Sam and Dean's back-and-forth repertoire of insults, he had to admit that Dean was right. This did make him feel better.

* * *

How on earth he managed to stay semi-conscious for the rest of Magical Mystery Tour day - or rather, night - Cas had no idea. One minute it seemed he was collapsing back into the passenger seat next to Gabriel (Dean had ended up actually being demoted to the back seat beside Jimmy) after what felt like hours upon hours of stumbling back through the dark forest, and the next he was sprawled across his bed, still fully dressed in his best suit and slacks with his trenchcoat covering him like a makeshift blanket, being rudely awoken by the sound of his cellphone chiming somewhere close to his ear. He let out a loud whine at the noise, flinging an arm out in an attempt to shut it off and let him slide back into the land of dreams.

 _Hey, Clarence!_ He read when he finally managed to locate his cell and the squint in his eye had decreased enough for him to see the screen three centimetres in front of him. _Raring to go? [Sent 06.00]_

 _Meg, it's 6AM. I can barely lift my head off the pillow. [Sent 06.01]_

 _Maybe if you hadn't eaten that disgusting salad we had for dinner last night, you'd be up and ready to go for work by now. Why don't you drop by in, say, 20 minutes? [Sent 06.02]_

Cas frowned at the screen, rubbing the sleep from his eyes as he typed out the reply. _But we don't have to be in for work until 9... [Sent 06.02]_

 _I know. But we've got other work to do, remember? [Sent 06.03]_

 _Fine. Give me half an hour [Sent 06.03]_

With another groan, Cas hauled himself off the bed and blundered across the room, wobbling dangerously on his shaky legs and having to use the wall to support himself in order to reach the bathroom without falling over and alerting Jimmy, who was still fast asleep if the soft snores coming from his room were anything to go by. Nice for some, Cas thought, trying to run the shower as quietly as possible.

Meg snorted when he turned up outside her doorstep, exactly half an hour, a change of clothes and a note left to Jimmy later, nursing a large plastic cup filled with coffee.

"Fun night out, I see, Clarence."

Cas let out a heavy exhale. "I wouldn't exactly call hiking through the forest on the outskirts of town long after midnight counts as a fun night out."

"Who said I wasn't talking about dinner?" Meg replied, giving him a poke in the shoulder when he didn't respond. "Aw, c'mon, I'm only messing with you. Sheesh, I've never met anyone to stoic in all my life." She slammed the passenger door as Cas lurched the car forward. "God knows how anyone's found something worth chasing after in you."

"I thought you said that you were going to _help_ me, not insult me."

"I never said anything about not insulting you, Clarence," she replied with a wink. "That is, after all, the foundation on which our friendship is built."

"I also thought you couldn't stand me."

"Yeah, well..." She pulled a face as Cas swerved to avoid hitting a pigeon, making her head collide with the roof of the car. "...maybe I'm drawn to the socially inapt."

Cas raised an eyebrow. "I think I'm going to take that as a compliment."

"You can do what you like, Clarence." Meg shrugged lightly. "I mean, you shouldn't take it as a compliment, but hell, who I am to tell you what to do? After all -" She leered in his direction, a feral grin about her all of a sudden. "- I am your best friend now."

"I don't think I would go so far as to say that," Cas replied, but he wasn't able to keep the grin entirely from his face. Maybe he was clutching at straws here, but perhaps there was a chance that his earlier tensions with Meg would be forgotten.

But, then again -

"Ugh! What is this crap you're listening to?" Meg leaned forward and rolled through the limited amount of stations that Castiel's car could pick up before settling on a piece of rock music that Cas hadn't heard before, turning the volume all the way up until the entire car seemed to be shaking along with the beat of the song.

"You literally have the worst music taste I've ever heard, Clarence!" She yelled above the din.

But, then again, maybe not.

* * *

"That one. Over there."

"Which one?" Cas frowned as his gaze travelled across the staff lounge, following the direction in which Meg was gesturing. "The blonde?"

"No. That's Bela Talbot. You don't want to get on the wrong end of her, so I'd stay clear if I were you. No, I mean, _that_ one. The redhead. You see her?"

There was indeed a redhead in the corner, leaning against her locker and pouring over a book. "Yes. I see her."

"That's Charlie. She's a bit full-on, if you really want my honest opinion, which I'm guessing by the look on your face that you don't, but she's decent enough, I guess. Writing sappy love notes would kind of be her thing."

The Novak raised an eyebrow. "She looks a little _young_ , doesn't she?"

"Clarence, I'm sure she'll keep up with you," Meg snorted. "Even if your mental age is around seventy five."

"Okay. Fine. I'll go talk to her." Cas drained the last of his coffee, too tired to really argue, placing the empty cup down on the counter, before pausing. "Wait, what am I supposed to say?"

"How the hell should I know?"

"You said you would help me!"

"Hey -" She held up her hands in mock-surrender "- I don't know what kind of stuff you're in to, do I? Sheesh, go over there and talk about the weather, if you really can't think of anything else. You got those big blue eyes - freakin' use them already!"

Cas hesitated for a few more seconds; Meg rolled her eyes and gave him a shove in Charlie's direction, sending him stumbling over towards the redhead, who was too caught up in the words on the page in front of her to notice the guy in the trenchcoat fidgeting in front of her.

"Hello," he said finally, dragging Charlie from her book.

She beamed up at him. "Hi. You're Castiel, right?"

"Most just call me Cas, but -"

"Cas. Right." She all but leapt out of her seat and clapped him hard on the shoulder. "Name's Charlie. Pleased to finally meet ya. Metatron's being going on about you for days now."

"He has?"

"Yeah. Saying it was about time we got some new faces 'round here." She rolled her eyes. "Not that he really knows anything about new faces. He hardly ever leaves his office; I mean, we could all quit, like, now, and walk straight on outta here, and it would take him at least two days to actually notice." She snorted. "Honestly, the dude's like a sieve."

Cas glanced at Meg, who nodded encouragingly. "Um, yes. He, er, he is a little like a sieve, isn't he?"

Charlie smiled wider - if that was even possible. "I knew you'd see it that way too! We're totally gonna be friends, I can tell."

"Yes," Cas agreed, not sure what else to say in response. "Um -" He looked back towards Meg, who mouthed "GET ON WITH IT!" with elaborate hand gestures. "So, um, there's something I wanted to ask you, now that I've, um, you know, met you."

"Oh, yeah? What was that?"

"I was just wondering -"

"Charlie?" Another voice cut across the conversation.

"Hey!" Charlie grinned at the new arrival - another redhead - leaning up on tiptoes to peck her on the cheek. "Dorothy, this is Cas. Cas, Dorothy. Cas is the one with the awesome trenchcoat, remember, babe?"

 _Oh._

Cas turned his gaze back to Meg. She couldn't even have the decency to hide her giggles behind her hand. Of course she knew about this. She was a better actress than he'd given her credit for.

"So, Cas." Charlie brought his attention back to her. "What was it that you wanted to ask me?"

"Uh..." He looked around him for inspiration of some kind. "What's your favourite book?" He managed to blurt out after a few minutes of awkward silence. Charlie didn't seem to mind, however; she quite happily launched into an enthusiastic speech about Harry Potter and how Hermione was the most kick-ass heroine ever created. Cas took the opportunity to fire a glare at Meg, who gave him a big thumbs up in response.

This was probably the worst idea he'd ever agreed to.

* * *

 **Well, that was that! Until the next time, my little sock puppets... X**


	5. Bright Ideas

**5.** _Bright Ideas_

"There you are. Finally." Meg drained the last of her glass, slamming it down on the tabletop as she turned her attention to the new arrival. "I was startin' to think that you bailed out on me, Clarence. You're half an hour late. Is this going to be a regular thing when we make plans for our strategy meetings?"

Castiel collapsed onto the bar stool beside the brunette with a heavy sigh. "I got caught up with something at work. Not all of us had this afternoon off because of "family emergencies"..." He pulled a face at her blatant lies and dragged a hand through his mop of dark hair.

"Hey, it's not like I made The Powers That Be let me take off early. I asked Metatron fair and square and he agreed."

"Yes. Because he's like a sieve, and doesn't realise that you're taking advantage of him, and therefore he leaves _me_ with all your duties for the afternoon."

"Oh yeah?" Meg raised an eyebrow, gesturing to the bar tender for two beers. "Bet you had loads of fun doin' that, huh, Cas? What did you wind up doing? Desk duty?"

"He asked me to go through the returns chute before I left." Cas rummaged in his pocket and brought out a handful of crumpled up notes, dumping them down on the counter in front of them. "And look what I found underneath all of the returns. At least five of them."

"Sheesh." Meg pushed his beer towards him and then clinked her drink with his, as they simultaneously picked up their glasses and sipped from them. "Someone's eager. Well, if this can even be classified as eager, because, hell, this is almost starting to border on stalking." She plucked one from the pile and opened it. " _When hard times come, remember that I will always be here for you._ " She refolded it and dropped it back on the table in distaste. "Yep. Definitely stalkerish. What 'bout this one?" She reached for another. " _If love is lost when we close our eyes, then I wouldn't blink because I wouldn't want to live a second without loving you._ " And another. " _Nobody tells fish to swim, dogs to bark, or cows to moo, they just do. Nobody tells me to love you, I just do._ Okay, that one is just plain weird. Where does this whack-job get their lines from? Certainly no romance book I've ever read -" She blanched. "Not that I, y'know, read romances or anythin' -"

"Oh, no." Cas took another long gulp of beer in order to hide the smirk creeping its way onto his face. "Of _course_ you don't, Meg. Why would anyone think that? It's not like I haven't seen you glancing towards the romance section when we've been on shelf duty..."

A red hue of heat began to make its way up to Meg's cheeks. "You say a word - a single _syllable_ \- to _anyone_ about this conversation, Clarence, and I swear to _God_ -"

"Don't worry about that. Your secret's safe with me. Just like I hope mine is safe with you." He gave her a meaningful look, resulting in her sighing melodramatically.

"God, are all you Novaks this freaking dense? Clarence, what possible personal gain would I get from blurting all about your silly little love crisis to the rest of the staff, hm? Other than making me look like a complete sap for offering to help you manage the situation, which you clearly weren't doing before, and therefore ruining my reputation. I think we can definitely say that I won't be telling _anyone_ of the reasoning behind our new-found friendship."

"Trust me, the feeling's mutual," Castiel assured her, before he also picked up one of the notes and opened it: _I think you are the bees knees_ , with a scrawled cartoon of a bee hovering over a patch of flowers. He sighed again. "This is harder than I ever imagined it would be."

"What is?"

"This." He gestured to the heap of paper. "I never thought it would be this difficult to find out who sent these."

Meg pulled a face as she spoke. "Whoever's doing it clearly doesn't want to be found."

"But, _why_?" Cas persisted, more to himself than in reply to her. "Why would someone stay hidden like this? What would they have to gain from that? From lurking in the shadows? From watching from afar and just wanting, never being able to pluck up the courage to take a chance and be with the person they really l-...?" He trailed off, caught up in the memory of his conversation with Jimmy a week ago about the summer of 1989. He pushed that away as quickly as he could manage, packing it into one of the metaphorical boxes inside his memory and sellotaping it up tightly where it couldn't get out and bother him again. The last thing he needed during a time like this was to be thinking about Dean and his questionable childhood feelings towards him and whether or not those feelings had actually faded with childhood or whether they were still bubbling beneath the surface, just waiting to burst through when he least expected it, just waiting for the next time that Dean would smile at him, the kind that made his face light up and the green in his eyes seem even brighter than usual, or throw a wink in his direction -

"Clarence? _Clarence!_ " Meg shook his shoulder, sending the metaphorical Summer Of '89 box rattling inside his brain.

"Huh?" He blinked. Oh. Right. She'd been saying something and he hadn't heard a word of it. "Sorry. I was just lost in thought for a minute there."

"Yeah, I noticed." The brunette at his side raised her eyebrow. "I was just saying, you sound like you know the feeling of watching and wanting from afar well, Clarence. Not that it's a surprise to me; you are, after all, the most socially uncomfortable person I've ever had the fortune to meet. Or, should that be _mis_ fortune..." She shifted in her seat, glancing over her shoulder and surveying what was going on in the rest of the small diner.

"Hey." She frowned suddenly, inclining her head towards the other side of the room. "Isn't that the woman who asked about the blocked returns chute last week?"

Cas swivelled around on his barstool and followed her gaze. Sure enough, there was favoured-by-God Hannah, seated alone at a table for two, talking in a hushed tone to the waiter in front of her. He couldn't hear what she was saying from where he was sitting, but, going by the desperate look on her face, it appeared to be urgent.

"Something's wrong," he said aloud, making Meg turn to look at him.

"Well, then. Go over there and help her. Be a gentleman. Trust me -" She held up a hand "- women love it when a guy acts like a gentleman. Now, go get her, tiger." She gave him a less-than-gentle shove of encouragement when he hesitated again - that had come to be one of the good things about their agreement; Meg could always get him to branch out of his comfort zone (albeit, often unwillingly) - and so he took another long gulp of beer for courage and started off across the bar to where Hannah was situated.

"- so sorry about this, but I'm begging here," she was saying, arms folded across her chest, blazer tucked under her arm.

"Company policy, I'm afraid, ma'am," the waiter replied stiffly, unmoved by the desperate tone in her voice. "I don't make the rules, I just serve the food, so don't look at me like that, but another guest needs your table, so -"

"Please. I'm sure he'll just be another few minutes -"

"It's okay," Cas interrupted suddenly, causing both Hannah and the waiter to turn in his direction. "She's, uh, with me, actually." He looped an arm through the brunette's, using that to tug her a little bit closer to him. "Sorry about that, Hannah."

"Hm." The waiter didn't look too impressed with Cas' sudden show of good will, but there wasn't a lot that he could do about the situation, and so he merely brushed past them and ushered the next couple towards the table.

"Well, well, well." Hannah finally spoke when Cas manoeuvred them out of the way and began to lead her back across the room to where Meg was still sitting, watching the spectacle with an amused smirk on her face. "I always knew that I had a guardian angel. I didn't expect it to be the angel of Thursdays, though."

"What can I say? You are favoured by God, after all."

"Ugh." Meg's face went from amused to distasteful in less than three seconds. "Is that really your idea of a decent pick up line, Clarence?"

Cas sent a glare in her direction as Hannah perched on the bar stool next to him. "Ignore Meg. She likes to think that she's amusing."

"That's because I _am_ amusing, Clarence. No, wait, forget that. I'm freakin' _hilarious_ , that's what I am."

"Clearly." Cas returned his attention to the new addition beside him. "May I buy you a drink?"

Hannah looked surprised, almost suspicious for a moment, but then she nodded. "Yeah. That would be great, actually." She leaned across the counter towards the bar tender. "I'll take a shot of whiskey. In fact, I'll take two...if that's alright with you?" Her eyes flickered back to Castiel for confirmation, who simply pushed a couple of bills across the table in response. "Thank you." Her voice was earnest as she reached for one of the glasses set down in front of her and knocked back the first shot, exhaling sharply when the now empty container made contact with the table again. "Hell, I needed that."

"Let's hope she can hold her alcohol," Meg snickered into Castiel's ear, slipping a bunch of single dollar bills into his pocket and winking at his expression, before she stretched lazily and returned her voice to normal volume. "Well, I don't know about you two, but I'm exhausted. I think I'm gonna turn in early tonight." She clapped Cas on the shoulder as she rose from her seat. "Have fun, guys. Good luck, Clarence. I have a feeling you'll need it." She grinned in the feral way that she did so well before turning and disappearing through the crowd of people gathered around the karaoke set up, missing the eye roll that the Novak fired at her retreating form.

Hannah had already downed the other shot when he swivelled back to face her. "So," Cas began, clearing his throat slightly to try and relieve some of the awkwardness that had settled over them in the few moments since Meg's departure.

"So," Hannah repeated, toying with a loose strand of her brunette curls, waiting for him to continue.

"What was happening back there? They didn't look too pleased."

The woman next to him made a sound that was caught somewhere between a huff and a sigh. "I was supposed to be having dinner with someone tonight, and he never showed up." She dragged a hand across her eyes, an bitter peal of laughter escaping her. "The biggest joke is on me, though. I was going to break up with him tonight, and it appears as though he's beat me to it. Great." She waved for another shot. "Isn't that just freaking wonderful? Two years together and he can't even be bothered to show me the decency of showing up to one measly dinner." She gulped the liquor quickly, slamming her glass back on the counter. "Another one, please." Cas drained the last of his own drink and also mimed for a shot. He may as well get aboard the bandwagon and keep Hannah company.

"Whoever he is, he sounds like a complete assbutt," he said firmly, wincing a little when the alcohol burned against the inner lining of his throat. "A guy like that seriously isn't worth the time of a woman as lovely as you."

"You say that," Hannah snorted, barely pausing to talk between the consumption of each new shot. "But I'm still the stupid one. I went and fell in love with him - and I did love him, y'know? Once - It was glorious, a whirlwind, like in movies, right? - We took sunset walks, picnics on the beach, the whole lot." She sighed heavily, a slight slur starting to catch her words. "But he was an ass - Keep them coming, please - and I was an idiot to think that he ever felt anything remotely akin to love towards me."

Cas knocked back another one of his own shots. "A jerk like that isn't worth your attention, in my opinion."

"I know!" Hannah pushed her hair out of her face as she reached for more drink. "God, you've no idea what it's been like tryin' to deal with someone like him on my own. I can't go to my parents about it - sheesh, they were the ones who practically shoved me at him in the first place. They'd blow blood vessels."

"You're not on your own now," Cas commented. Now that he'd had a few glasses, he'd decided that the shots really weren't that bad. "Talk to _me_. Tell me everything."

Hannah, clearly glad to finally have an outlet, swiftly started talking, launching into a long and detailed explanation of her two-year relationship with Alistair and everything that had happened between them, taking shot after shot as she did so. Cas listened attentively for the entire time - well, as attentively as he could, what with the rush of alcohol making its way through his immune system. By the time that Hannah had finally concluded her story, they were both surrounded by empty glasses and both really quite drunk.

"I swear -" Hannah held her hands up, wobbling dangerously on the bar stool. " - I'm _done_ with the dreamy types, y'know? Always end up gettin' screwed over by 'em - No, no, I'm done with them. I want someone intelligent."

Cas slouched against the counter, nodding way too enthusiastically than the situation actually required. "I know exactly how you feel. The dreamy types _suck_." His voice was bitter as he said this.

 _Stupid summer of '89..._

Hannah snorted. "Tell me about it. Dreamy types are the worst. Wha', you meet some cute spoiled popular girl in high school, or somethin'?"

Cas shook his head, but stopped after a couple of seconds when he realised how dizzy that made him feel. "Nah. Best friend." He waved a hand through the air, gesturing to nothing in particular.

Hannah raised an eyebrow. "Oh, yeah? They attractive?"

Cas let out a hum as he considered. "Yeah. Definetly. I'd say so - well, nah, I wouldn't, actually, because that would just send everythin' tumbling into Perdition." He chortled at his own joke as Hannah's blue eyes swam, unfocused, about the room.

"Hey!" She said suddenly, palm clattering against the counter. "You wanna do karaoke an' get our minds off all the dreamy types we've struck out with?"

"I can't sing."

Hannah grinned, defining the dimples in her cheeks. "That makes two of us, then. C'mon." She grabbed him by the hand and pulled him from his seat, the two of them staggering towards the karaoke area.

"Do y'know how t'work this thing?" She looked distastefully at the machine in front of them, and the list of songs available for them to perform.

"This one," Cas said suddenly, pointing to the screen - or at least, trying to - recognising the name of one of Dean's favourite songs. After pressing several different buttons, they managed to get the system working and the music to start playing, the familiar guitar riff wrapping around them as it emitted from the speakers.

Well, it wasn't like they were goings to do any worse than the drunken youths before them, he reasoned. They might as well go for it.

" _Soul taker, heart breaker,_ " Cas slurred, slinging an arm around Hannah, too far gone under the influence of the alcohol to attempt to remember all the words. " _ **Too**_ _...she's one of a_ _ **mind**_ _._ "

In a fit of giggles, Hannah continued. " _Head turner; What a hooker_ \- I mean, _looker_!" Cas let out a loud snort at her mistake. " _She's enough to make a grown man cry!_ "

She slipped her arm around Cas' shoulder as they continued the song together, warbling in their off-key voices, missing out half of the words. " _But I don't_... _hangin'...my door! 'Cause, she's bringin' me down! Down on loooove!_ " The people standing around them began to heckle, not that they took any notice, even as the song carried on and Hannah nearly tripped and fell off the stage, almost taking Castiel with her.

They fell into an odd cycle for the next hour, moving back and forth between the bar where the shots were located and the stage where they would belt out song after song, getting progressively worse and worse as the night wore on, so that they had to help each other to merely stand up as they practically dragged each other from the bar when it came to closing time.

"Tha'..." Hannah managed to say, clutching at his trenchcoat for support as they hovered on the sidewalk outside. "...was _sooooo_ much fun."

"Yeah," Cas agreed, his cheeks aching from smiling so hard. "Hey...Han'?"

"Hm?"

"D'you wanna, like..." He gestured through the air with his free hand. "...go out sometime?"

"Tha' depen's."

"On wha'?"

"Whether y're the dreamy type or not."

"I don't think so."

"Well, then." She swayed forward, her hair brushing against his cheek as she grinned. "Looks like we're goin' on a date."

* * *

Cas wasn't entirely sure how he got home. One minute, he was swerving across the road in his car, trying to follow the mumbled directions an intoxicated Hannah was giving him and sharing a sloppy kiss when they eventually made it to the correct address that had him grinning and her giggling, and the next, he was stumbling through his front door and slamming it shut behind him so hard that the entire house seemed to shake.

"Whoa - What the freakin - Cas?" Jimmy materialised at the top of the stairs, dressed in a flannel shirt and sweatpants, blinking as he shaded his eyes against the harsh light of the hallway. "The hell are you doin' back here so late?"

"Jimmy!" Cas flashed his twin a gummy smile, swaying as he stood on the spot. "What're y'doin' here?"

"I'm here because I _live_ here, assbutt." Jimmy folded his arms, making his way down the short flight of stairs so that he was standing face to face with his brother. "Where have you been all night? Are you _drunk_?"

"No!" Cas protested. There was a pause - Jimmy raised his eyebrow at the answer - before he let out a few hiccups and then started grinning. "Yeah. I might'a had a couple o'drinks..."

"More than a couple, by the looks of things." Jimmy let out a melodramatic sigh, playing at being the ever-suffering big brother. "C'mon, baby brother. Let's get you in bed. You've got to work tomorrow, and I'm not sure if I could survive taking another ride on that damn bus just because you feel the need to run off at six thirty in the morning."

"Sure thing, _Mom_ ," Cas snickered, parroting the same thing Jimmy had said to him only a few days ago. Jimmy simply muttered something about how they was supposed to have gotten past this when they graduated college, looping an arm around Cas' shoulders and leading him slowly up the stairs, one step at a time since Cas tripped every time he tried to put one foot in front of the other.

"Jim-Jim?" The younger Novak began suddenly, as Jimmy nudged a door open with his side.

"Yeah?"

"Where's Dean?"

Jimmy almost dropped his grip on his intoxicated twin. "Uh, at his house, sleeping, I assume? Y'know, like I'm supposed to be doing right now. Why?"

"I needed t'tell him somethin'." Cas frowned as he slurred, struggling to remember exactly what it was that he was going to tell his best friend. "Somethin' 'bout...dreamy types...and always gettin' screwed over."

Jimmy studied his face in confusion for a moment, before shaking his head. "Cas, you're so hammered that you can't even stand up properly. Whatever you have to say to him about " _dreamy types_ " -" Despite his tiredness, he couldn't hold back from smirking at those words "- can wait until morning. That is, if you can even move under the hangover you're gonna have." He sighed. "Looks like I'm gonna be riding that freakin' bus to work ain't gonna move for another twenty four hours." He helped Cas get as far as the bed, easing him down into some kind of comfortable position. "Sleep tight. I'll call in sick for you in the morning."

Cas let out a hum as a way of reply, his voice muffled by the pillow that he'd burrowed under.

Jimmy turned out to be right, Cas realised a few hours later, when he was roused from his slumber by the sound of Jimmy tapping on his bedroom door. Although to him, it sounded like he was taking a sledgehammer to it.

"Brought you this." Jimmy placed a glass of water on the bedside table, one which Cas gratefully chugged when he eventually managed to pull himself up into a sitting position, rubbing his free hand against his forehead, as if this would somehow soothe the painful throbbing in his skull. "That Meta-whatever guy says that he hopes you get better soon."

"What have I got?" Cas mumbled.

"Food poisoning. You made some dodgy chicken dinner last night and that's why you're currently lying in bed looking like something a cow sicked up."

"Thanks for that glowing description," Cas replied, but the sarcasm was marred by the rough, scratchy tone of his voice.

"You're welcome." Jimmy gave his brother's hair a cheerful ruffle, Cas being too tired to duck out of the way. "There's some bread in the kitchen if you feel like eating later, and there's also some headache stuff in the bathroom if you really need it. Don't set the house on fire whilst I'm gone."

"Your faith in me is touching," Cas muttered, laying down onto his back once more as Jimmy left the room whilst chuckling under his breath, taking care not to slam the door when he left for work. Cas revelled in the peace and quiet for a few minutes, hands clapped over his eyes, until his cellphone started ringing in his pocket. Groaning, he fumbled with his trenchcoat, which he was using as a blanket, squinting at the screen until he hit the Answer button.

"What?" He croaked into the receiver.

"Oh, well, hello to you too, Cas." Dean's voice echoed down the line.

Cas winced. "Don't shout!"

"I'm not shoutin'!" Dean lowered the volume of his voice. "There. I'm practically whisperin' now. Better?"

"Yes. Better. So, what did you want?"

"I just wanted to see if you were okay. I figured you might be pretty hung over today, y'know, considerin' how much you must have drunken last night."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Cas asked, trying to sound as expressive as he could.

"You haven't seen it yet?"

"Seen what?"

Dean chuckled. "Someone captured your little karaoke stint from last night on video and decided to upload it to the Internet."

Cas let out a groan. "Please tell me you're joking."

"If I was jokin', I wouldn't be watchin' it right now, and Gabe wouldn't be dyin' in the corner of my kitchen."

"Gabriel knows about this?" Cas made another noise of despair. "Great. This day couldn't possibly get any worse -" He was cut off by his phone making a noise. "Hold on." He brought the phone away from his ear in order to read the message; he screwed his eyes shut when he saw Meg's name appear on the screen.

 _Didn't believe it until I saw it, Clarence. You're quite the Internet superstar now, hm? I particularly liked the part when you and Hannah destroyed "I Will Survive." [Sent 08.30]_

"Cas?" Dean's voice came out of the speaker. "You still there?"

"I was wrong," Cas replied bitterly. "This day can, and just did, get worse."

* * *

 **AN: I love Jamie Dunlap's "Down On Love", ever since I heard it in the show, and so that's why Cas and Hannah destroy it with their singing.**

 **Until next time, my little sock puppets. :) X**


	6. The Winchester Bitchfaces

**6.** _The Complete Collection of_ _Winchester Bitchfaces_

"Are you _sure_ that you don't mind?"

"I'm sure."

"It's just that my friends, my family - They - Some of them can be very - well..." Cas trailed off, thinking of Gabriel. "They're rather...um, how do I say this...unique?"

Hannah let out a chuckle, pressing a quick peck on his cheek. "Cas, really, I don't mind, I promise. I'm glad you suggested it, actually. I mean, we've been seeing each other for three weeks now; surely it's about time I started meeting the in-laws?"

Cas let a peal of laughter escape, grinning back at her. "That's very true."

"You know what _else_ is very true?" Meg interrupted, giving the Novak a playful whack on the back of the head. "The fact that you're supposed to be on shelf duty with me right now and yet you're too busy trying to flirt with your girlfriend to get on with anything remotely useful."

"She's right, you know." Hannah gave Cas a teasing smile, fiddling absentmindedly with the collar of his shirt. "You really should be working. I'd better get out of your way before you get too distracted and lose your job."

"Don't flatter yourself or anything," Meg commented from beside them, rolling her eyes as she slid another book onto the shelf.

Cas chose to ignore her. "Hang on - You don't have to -"

"Nonsense." Hannah gave him another kiss on the cheek as she smoothed out the creases in his lapels. "You get back to work. I'll see you tonight at seven."

Cas felt his lips curl into a smile, ruining the pout that he had been wearing a few moments previously. "I look forward to it."

"Y'know, any time today that you want to actually _help_ me, Clarence, would be freakin' great."

Cas flashed Hannah an apologetic smile. "Sorry. Guess shelf duty is calling." He gently bumped their noses together as a parting gesture, before he followed Meg to the other side of the shelf and through the door that led into the back room.

"You guys are so sickeningly sweet that it's horrifying, I hope you realise this."

"Oh, no," Cas replied, his voice teasing. "Are we not measuring up to all the couples that you read about in all those romances of yours?"

"I thought we agreed that we weren't gonna mention that in public."

"I don't see anybody else around here, do you?"

"Oh, ha ha. Very funny, Clarence." Meg started lifting books from the returns chute, placing them on the table beside her for Cas to organise into neat piles. "So funny, in fact, that I forgot to laugh...and speaking of forgetting to laugh." She held up a folded piece of paper with his name scrawled across it. "Looks like another letter from your mystery maiden fair."

"Oh?" Cas opened it, smoothing the creases out with his thumb. " _They say that you can only fall in love once. Well, that's a lie. Every time I see you, I fall in love all over again._ " His face broke out into a smile. "Aw. That's so sweet."

"Yeah, real sweet. Just like candy," Meg replied with an accompanying eye roll. "Say, whilst we're talking about the concept of candy, have you told Little Miss Hannah Von Bible Camp about all this?"

The cheerful expression started to slip from Castiel's face. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, is she aware that someone that possibly isn't her is sending you sickly sweet love messages?"

"You don't think it's her sending them, then?"

"You do?"

"Well, who else could it be? I mean, it fits, doesn't it?" The smile had dropped completely by this time. "Hannah's always here, meaning that she's got plenty of opportunity to leave the notes at just the right time for me to find."

"That doesn't mean anything, Clarence. How could she have known your name beforehand on your first day? And, anyway, surely if they were from her, she would have said something? Or, for that matter, stopped sending them? Look at this." She plucked another letter from the chute, tucked inside a book named _Just Keep Fishing_. " _The moment our eyes met, I was caught (like a fish)._ I mean, think about it, if this whole thing _is_ her, she got what she wanted. You guys have been going out for three weeks now. Why carry on if you've got what you wanted?"

"For good show?"

"Clarence." Meg fixed him with a meaningful look as she handed him the other slip. "Nobody does anything simply for "good show" anymore."

"But, then, if it's not her, then...who?"

"Your guess is as good as mine, Cas." The brunette beside him brushed her hands free of dust as she studied the paper in his hands. "I suppose I could go and ask Metatron if he's seen anything."

"Would that be of any use to us?"

"Not sure. It could go either way. I mean, as much as I hate to admit it, because I hate giving anyone credit, especially that man, Metatron, he can be observant on occasion, when he's not holed up in his office like a hermit. There's always the possibility that he's caught on to something."

Cas gave a shrug. "Hey, it's not like we've got much to lose."

"Um, _we've_ got _nothing_ to lose, Clarence. This is your endeavour, if I'm not mistaken. I'm just the scientific advisor of this little operation."

"Of course you are. How could I forget that?" Cas rolled his eyes. "Well, then, Meg. Scientifically advise me."

She sent him a withering look. "I bet you think that you're funny, don't you, Clarence?"

"That's because I _am_ funny, Meg. No, wait, forget that." Cas smirked, repeating her words from the night at the bar. "I'm freaking _hilarious_ , that's what I am."

"If you're not careful, Castiel," the brunette replied in a warning tone with an accompanying scowl, "then you'll be on shelf duty by yourself." She marched out of the room, sniffing as she went, leaving Cas to gather up the rest of the retuned books in his arms and hurry after her, just in case she had been serious; shelf duty wasn't much fun if you didn't have someone else to do it with, and, despite their previous shortcomings, Cas had to admit that he had the most fun working with Meg.

When the two of them had stacked all of the returned books on their specific shelves, they decided that, in the end, it wouldn't hurt to go and investigate - or interrogate, as Meg called it - to see if their boss had seen or heard anything. Of course, that didn't stop Meg from pulling a face when Cas knocked on the door of the office.

"Why did I agree to this?" She muttered, shoving the door open and failing to give Metatron the chance to speak, Cas following behind her, ready to try and do a little damage control if Meg's approach got a little too much - which, as he knew from experience, was highly likely.

"Meg? Cas? What brings you two here?" Metatron rose from his seat to smile warmly at them, looking rather cheerful for someone who had just had two employees come barging their way into his office without permission to enter. "I must say, I'm surprised to see the two of you here. After the whole dinner debacle, I thought -"

Meg turned to glare accusingly at Castiel. "Wait - You told _him_ about the dinner?"

The Novak shuffled sheepishly. "I may or may not have come here to ask for advice -"

"You know what, Clarence?" The brunette cut him off and narrowed her eyes into slits. "You'd better learn to sleep with one eye open at night because I'm going to find you and then I'm going to extract my revenge slowly and painfully."

Metatron gave a quiet, yet meaningful cough, distracting them - or rather, Meg - from making anymore semi-serious promises of death to the other. "So, was there anything I could help you with?"

"Actually, there was." Cas folded his arms. "I - well, we - were just wondering if you'd seen anything...strange going on around here."

"Strange?" Metatron looked amused. "You mean stranger than usual?"

"We were thinking more along the lines of if you'd spotted anyone acting suspiciously," Meg cut in smoothly, using her feral grin to buy her leverage over her employer. "You know, like, for example, oh, I don't know, skulking down by the returns chute?"

"The returns chute?" Metatron's voice suddenly went through at least two octaves, before he cleared his throat to get it under control. "I mean, er, what about the returns chute?"

Meg spoke before Cas could open his mouth and try to explain. "We just want to know whether you'd seen anything - or anyone - suspicious."

"Oh..." The man was fascinated by the papers in front of him all of a sudden. "No, no...nothing."

Meg was almost squinting with the effort of narrowing her eyes so hard. "You _sure_?"

"Quite sure, quite sure." Metatron avoided meeting either of their gazes. "Now, was that all? Or was there something else that you required?"

"No." The brunette sounded blunt. "That's it. C'mon, Clarence, let's get outta here." She grabbed his arm and proceeded to drag him from the room, slamming the door behind them.

Cas turned to her as soon as they were out of earshot. "What was that all about?"

"What do you think that was all about?" Meg finally relaxed her grip on his arm. "He's lying. He was lying right through his teeth. Couldn't you tell?"

"Of course I could tell. But you being bad cop isn't going to work on him, is it? It's not going to make him tell us what he saw."

"Who says we need him to tell us what he saw?"

"You did!"

"I said that we needed to ask, not that we needed that oaf to tell us anything." She rolled her eyes, huffing at his confused expression. "Duh, Clarence. "

"I don't understand what the point of going to see him was if that was all we needed to know."

"Clarence, really. I thought you were supposed to be the smart one here. It's really quite simple: If Metatron hadn't seen anything, he would have acted completely natural; If he had seen someone, but hadn't thought anything of it, he would have mentioned it; If he had seen someone and gone over, but not known them, he still would have mentioned it. So, what does this tell you about his reaction?" She sighed when she was met with silence. "It means that he's seen something and he clearly knows the person who's doing it; they've sworn him to secrecy and he freaked out when I asked because he doesn't want to give anything away."

"But that could be anyone," Cas pointed out, before reconsidering. "Well, okay, that could be at least all of the people who work here."

" _But_ ," Meg contradicted, "it could also mean that it's Hannah, which is good because that is the outcome that we want, right?"

"Right," he agreed. The Summer Of '69 box rattled loudly in his memory; Cas gave it a metaphorical kick to make it stop. "Do you think I should bring it up with Hannah?"

Meg paused as she considered this. "Maybe. I mean, the signs look right, but we still don't know for certain. Not tonight, at least. Wait until you guys are alone and not around the muppet that Gabriel sounds like he is."

She had a point, Cas reasoned. Gabriel did have a tendency to latch onto drama like some kind of leech, and he would certainly latch on to this situation.

"Okay," he agreed after a moment of amused thought picturing a leech with his older half brother's face on it trying to eat popcorn with no hands as he watched the Novak twins and their romantic endeavours. "Not tonight."

* * *

"Wow." Cas raised an eyebrow. "What's the occasion?"

Jimmy stood in the middle of the kitchen, barefooted, suit jacket slung over his shoulder and a tie in one hand. "Am I not allowed to look smart all of a sudden?"

"Of course not. But, you never usually wear a suit when we go out for dinner, and I doubt that Sam or Gabe will take particular notice of what you wear tonight."

"Yeah, well, you never wear a suit either, and you're wearing one tonight."

"That's because Hannah's going to be there," Cas reminded him. "Gabriel's trying to make this into some kind of double date with him and Sam; as if Hannah meeting him wasn't going to be embarrassing enough. Speaking of Hannah, actually, are you sure you're still okay riding with us? I know you don't like all that couple stuff, but we're not as bad as Sam and Gabriel, not by a mile, and I have no idea if Dean's even still coming at all tonight after what Sam said."

Apparently, according to the younger Winchester, Dean had been in some kind of damp, dark mood for the past three days, choosing to retreat into his room like a hormonal seventeen year old as soon as he returned from the garage, often yelling at the people who came to check on him to get lost and be quick about it. Cas had tried calling a couple of times, to see if he could try and shed some light on the situation, but both of his calls and his message left on Dean's voicemail had gone unanswered, much to his dismay and - if he was being honest - dejection. He'd never gone more than a few hours without speaking to his best friend through some form of communication, and it had been almost an entire day since they had shared a brief text conversation about something trivial and unimportant. It left Cas feeling off, as if something wasn't quite right, like looking at something through a lens that was out of focus ever so slightly.

"No, no, don't worry about me. I'm sure Hannah doesn't want me third wheeling you all night." Jimmy fiddled with the buttons on his shirt, trying to smooth out the creases in the material at the same time. "Besides, I, uh, I managed to hitch a ride with someone else."

"Oh?" Cas raised an eyebrow. "Does this mean that you're bringing a date too?"

"It's not...y'know, not like a _date_ date."

"Right. Because that makes perfect sense." He shook his head. "Who is it?"

Jimmy mumbled something inaudible under his breath, eyes fixed firmly on the pattern of tiles on the kitchen floor.

"What was that?"

"Amelia," his twin muttered before Cas could ask anymore probing questions.

" _ **Amelia?**_ "

"Yes, Cas, Amelia. I'm bringing Amelia to dinner with us." Jimmy sounded impatient now, as if he was in a hurry to move on to the next topic of conversation, not that his brother would allow that.

"You're kidding!" Cas let out a peal of laughter, clapping his hands in front of him and rocking back in his chair. "I don't believe it - You've finally done it! You've actually asked her out on a date!"

"I didn't ask her out on a date!" Jimmy protested, before backtracking. "Well - Okay, I did - but not - It wasn't like that! I just didn't want to join Dean in being your third wheel and so I asked her if she wanted to tag along, since, y'know, I talk about you all at work and she's never met you."

"Well, it's like Hannah said to me this morning," Cas replied, resisting the urge to enquire about what exactly was said about their little makeshift family when Jimmy was eating in the staff lounge. "It's about time she met the in-laws."

" _Cas!_ " Jimmy went the colour of his scarlet tie. "You lot are not her in-laws - God forbid that should ever happen. Christ, could you imagine having Gabriel as your brother-in-law? Ugh. It's bad enough having him as a sort-of blood relative." He wrinkled up his nose. "I feel for Dean. It's inevitable that Gabriel's gonna try and make an honest man out of Sam, and then he's going to have even more Gabriel to put up with."

"Doesn't Gabriel pretty much live at the Winchester place anyway?" Cas asked in amusement.

"Yeah, but if they get married, chances are Gabriel will take Sam's name. He'll officially be a Winchester then." Jimmy suddenly snorted. "Actually, I think I'd quite like to be there when Dean figures out that little fact. Can you imagine his face? You know, since you spend so much time visualising his face already."

Cas rolled his eyes. "I take it the fact that I have a girlfriend now has slipped your mind again?" The doorbell rang shrilly in the background and he rose from his seat to answer it.

"You can try and hide it all you want, Cassie," Jimmy yelled through the doorway. "But you can't fight it forever."

 _I can try_ , Cas thought, giving the Summer Of '69 box a glare for good measure, before he opened the front door, met with the sight of a strawberry blonde woman standing on the doorstep, trying to look as if she wasn't fussing with her hair.

"Hello," he greeted . "I'm guessing that you're Amelia?"

She nodded, a shy smile gracing her features. "And from that deep tone of voice, I'm guessing that you're Castiel?" She held out a hand, one which the other Novak accepted. "It's so nice to finally meet you."

"It's nice to finally meet you too, _Amelia_ ," Cas replied, doing his best to project his voice just enough so that Jimmy would hear it from the other room; sure enough, a distinct crashing sound came from somewhere in the kitchen, followed by Jimmy's muffled curses.

Amelia was watching the scene curiously. "I'm going to take a wild guess here and say that he's in the kitchen panicking because he's nowhere near ready to leave the house for dinner?"

"You could say that," Cas replied with a chuckle. "Although, I think it's more the fact that it's dinner with you rather than anything else."

"Amelia!" Jimmy had materialised out of the kitchen, his hair ruffled, his shirt creased and his tie on backwards, stumbling a little as he tried to lean against the door frame in an attempt to look relaxed. "Hey. Hello. How you doin'?" He glanced to Cas, and then back to the object of his blatantly obvious affections once more. "...Hi."

"Hi," Amelia echoed, a smile playing on her lips. They stood in silence for a moment, before she spoke up again. "You look handsome."

Jimmy went another startling shade of red, making some kind of hand gesture to her pale blue dress. "Thank you. You do too - I mean, um, y'know, beautiful. You look beautiful."

Amelia's own cheeks were dusted with red. "Thank you."

Cas pressed his lips together to avoid bursting into laughter. "Alright, well, I would love to stay and talk with you two some more, but I think my girlfriend is waiting for me to pick her up. I'll see you both at the Roadhouse, yes?"

"Yes!" Jimmy grasped at the safer topic of conversation: food. "The Roadhouse! Dinner!" He grinned at Amelia. "Are you hungry? Could you eat? I could eat."

"Definitely." Amelia's reply was fond as Cas slipped past them and made his escape down the garden path to where his car was parked. How on earth _he_ had been the one who earned the title of The Awkward Twin, he had no idea.

Hannah _did_ burst out laughing when he retold the story to her during the drive on the way to the restaurant. "Aw! That's so sweet. Your brother must have it pretty hard for this girl."

"Pretty hard?" Cas snorted. If Jimmy was there with them, he would have called it an understatement. "It's so obvious that it's painful to watch. One can only imagine what it would be like if his feelings weren't reciprocated."

"You're sure that they are?"

"Absolutely." He smiled. "I hope that they work it out; I know my twin brother on the same level that I know myself, maybe even better than that, and I know that Amelia is perfect for him."

Hannah shared his expression. "Let's hope that your brother shares that sentiment for your own choices."

"Let's hope so," Cas echoed, even though he already knew the answer. Jimmy wouldn't be the one he had to worry about. It was Gabriel embarrassing him that really worried him.

And, as he pulled into the parking lot of the Roadhouse, it appeared that he was right to be.

"Cassie!" Gabriel came bounding over to the car like a lost puppy, wrenching Cas' door open as soon as he unlocked it and enveloping his brother in a hug, practically draping himself over the younger Novak. "I'm so glad you made it!"

Cas gave a few awkward pats on the top of Gabriel's blonde head of hair. "Wouldn't miss it...Really..."

Eventually, the other man released him, turning to grin at the brunette passenger. "Are you Hannah, by any chance?"

"I might be."

"Well, it's a pleasure to meet you, ma'am." Gabriel tipped his imaginary hat towards her. "Cas' told us so much about you already."

"Really?" Hannah replied in amusement, glancing towards Cas. "Well, then, I can't wait to hear everything that he's been saying; you'll have to tell me all about it over dinner."

"Classy. I like it." Gabriel nudged his brother in the shoulder. "You've got yourself a keeper there, Cassie. Now, c'mon, the night is growing old as we speak, Jimmy's already embarrassed himself in front of Amelia at least five times and Dean's threatened to go home again on three of those occasion."

"Dean's here?" Cas felt his spirits lift at this news. Hannah's gaze in his direction narrowed slightly for a moment, but it was gone before he could properly register that it was even there at all.

"Yeah." Gabriel let out a snort as they got out of the car. "Only because we forced him to come. Sam threatened to remove all of his crappy cassette tapes from the Impala and replace them with Taylor Swift albums. He wasn't going to stay home after that. Anything to protect those cassette tapes." He gave a shrug. "But, then again, who can blame him? You tend to cling on to trivial things like that when you've lost a parent. See, there they are!" Gabriel began to wave manically at a small group huddled outside the Roadhouse doors. "Hey! Guys!"

"Still in the last place you left us, Gabe!" Sam yelled back in reply; Cas didn't need to be directly in front of him to know that he was casting his eyes up towards the heavens.

Cas sent a weary look in Hannah's direction. "Are you prepared for this?"

"Are _you_?" She replied in amusement, as Gabriel slung an arm around Cas' shoulder.

"Look who made it!" He grinned at Sam. "Now all the couples are here. Oh, yeah, and Dean too."

"I told you," the elder Winchester replied bitterly, hands stuffed into his jacket pockets. Sam was right; he really did look like he was in a dark mood, not at all like the cheerful person Cas was usually around. That fact alone stirred strings of worry in the pit of the younger Novak's stomach. "I'm goin' home in a freakin' minute."

"Aw, c'mon, no, you're not!" Gabriel stuck his tongue out at Dean. "Stop being such a party pooper, Dean, and get in the spirit of things! You're the only single one here right now - well, excluding Jimmy, but that's because of his own lack of romance ability. Who knows how many beautiful women lay beyond these doors..."

"Hm." Was all he got in reply.

Cas let Gabriel lead them all inside and towards their specific table, watching Dean carefully with a concerned frown plastered across his face. He'd only ever seen Dean like this once before in his life, years ago, and he had hoped that he would never have to see him like this again.

"Cassie!" Gabriel gave him a whack on the back of the head with a laminated menu. "Are you gonna stand there dithering all day or what?"

"Cas?" Hannah rested a hand on his shoulder. "Are you feeling okay?"

"Fine," he replied, but, even to him, his voice sounded absentminded and distracted. "Absolutely fine. Allow me." He pulled Hannah's chair out for her, which made Sam nudge Gabriel in the shoulder.

"How come you never do that for me, hey, Gabe?"

"What happened to " _For Gods sake, Gabriel, don't make a big deal out of this in freaking public_ ", Moose?" Gabriel replied, slinging an arm around Sam's shoulders. "If you want me to start doing that sort of thing, you only have to ask. After all, you are my Samsquatch and I am your -"

"Okay," Sam cut him off quickly, not wanting a repeat of what happened the last time that Gabriel referred to himself by that particular pet name. "I, er, I get the picture, Gabe, thanks."

"Do you, though, Sam? Do you really?"

"Jesus freakin' Christ," Dean muttered under his breath, rolling his eyes as he pretended to be looking at the menu in his hands. Castiel was about to speak, to ask Dean what on earth was it that could make him seem this miserable, when he was interrupted by the arrival of their waitress - Jo, according to her name badge.

"Hi," she greeted in a cheerful manner; Cas didn't fail to notice how she kept her eyes fixed on Dean the entire time that she was talking. "I'm Jo, I'm your server for this evening. Are you ready to order or would you like a few more minutes to decide?"

Gabriel cleared his throat, finally drawing her attention away from the elder Winchester as he rattled off a long list of orders.

"Cas?"

"Hm?"

Sam's brow was creased. "I asked what you wanted to order."

"Oh, right." Cas took a brief, second-long look at the menu and picked the first thing on the list that he saw, which happened to be something with salmon.

"And yourself?" Jo's gaze returned to Dean, who was still looking like he'd rather be anywhere else but sat there with them.

"Cheese burger," he replied after a moment, earning himself a questioning look from the rest of the gathered party. "What? M'just not hungry."

Jo scribbled his order down and flashed them all - but specifically Dean - a smile. "I'll be right back with that." The younger Novak let out a breath he hadn't even realised that he'd been holding as she left.

"Cas?" Hannah's voice captured his attention.

"Yes?"

"Are you sure that you're feeling alright? You've been staring at the table with a frown on your face for the past few minutes."

"I promise, I'm fine." He gave her a warm smile. "Just a little tired, I guess. Doing shelf duty with Meg does kind of drain you after a while." They shared a chuckle at the thought of the other woman and her impetuous nature.

Dean rose from his seat, sending the cutlery rattling, startling the others. "I need a drink," he muttered as a way of explanation, trying to make a run for it before Gabriel clamped a hand around his wrist.

"I'll go with you." Sam got up, squeezing the older Novak's shoulder as he slid out of his chair and laid a hand on Dean's shoulder, leading him across the bar. Cas narrowed his eyes slightly at the action, before he too stood.

"I'll be right back."

"Where are you going?" Gabriel asked - or, rather, demanded.

Cas replied with the first thing that came into his head. "Bathroom."

"Yeah, actually -" Jimmy struggled out of his seat as well, hurrying after his brother. "- I think I'll come too."

"Fine." They began to cross the bar together, Jimmy letting out a sigh.

"God, this was the worst idea I've ever had," he moaned. "Gabriel is gonna tear me apart now that Amelia's here; he's been waiting for this day for two years now."

"I thought that it wasn't a date," Cas replied absentmindedly, keeping a close eye on Sam and Dean, before he suddenly stopped walking and ducked down behind an empty table.

"Cas? What the -?"

"Get down!"

"But, the bathroom's that way -"

" _Down!_ " Cas grabbed the bottom of his suit jacket and yanked his twin brother behind the table so that both of them were hidden from view. Sam and Dean were both leaning against the bar, deeply involved in a heated discussion about something that Cas couldn't hear. He shifted closer, keeping low to the ground and dragging Jimmy with him until the two of them were crouched as close as they could get without being spotted.

"...sake, will you cheer _up_?" Sam was saying in a hushed tone. "We've come too far for you to blow this now."

"Hm," Dean replied, taking a long gulp from the bottle of beer on the counter in front of him.

"I'm serious, Dean!" Sam prised the drink from his brother's fingers, slamming it back down on the bar. "You're sitting there moping like someone gutted your pet dog right in front of you; what happened to acting normally to avoid detection?"

" _Detection?_ " Jimmy mouthed. Cas shrugged in response.

"Yeah, like that's gonna make any difference."

"Well, you're not exactly laying low now, are you?"

"What's the point?" Dean scowled. "I tried and it made no difference. It's never gonna happen. I've accepted that; why can't you?"

"Except you haven't accepted that, have you? You've just gone into some depressed funk and won't speak to anyone. I mean, c'mon, we practically had to drag you out of the house to get you to turn up tonight!"

"Yeah, and why d'you think that is, Sammy? D'you really think I wanna be here to sit and watch -?" Dean cut himself off with a long pained sigh. "Look, I get it, I really do - I just want to go home and find some of Mom's homemade pie -"

"No chance." Gabriel seemingly glided into view, pushing a bill across the bar and gesturing to a bottle of something that Cas couldn't see.

Dean sent him an annoyed look. "I'm talkin' to Sam. Can't I go anywhere without havin' you turn up?"

"Sam completes me, Deano. I can't help that." The elder Novak winked towards the brother in question, before straightening his face. "Now, listen here, gentlemen, I've been thinking -"

"That makes a change," Dean interrupted, earning himself glares from both Sam and Gabriel.

"You done with your sulking yet, Dean? Anyway, as I was saying, before I was so rudely interrupted, I've been thinking long and hard about this whole situation, and I have come up with the obvious solution."

"Oh, yeah? And what's that?"

"You need to tell the truth."

Dean snorted. "Yeah. I don't think so."

"Oh, come on, why not?"

"Why not? Why do you think?"

"Dean." Sam fixed him with a hard stare. "I think he's right."

"Oh, of course, you _would_."

"Stop looking at me like that! You know that we're making sense; we've been working at this for ages - you can't just give up and pretend that none of this ever happened!"

"I can try!"

"Well, I won't let you try!"

"C'mon, Deano," Gabriel cut in. "I didn't have you pegged as a quitter."

"Neither did I," Dean muttered. "But, then, that's the way it goes."

"Dean, it isn't over until you let it be over -"

Sam was cut off by Dean's acidic snort. "Jesus - Don't you guys get it? Of course it's over. It's been over for a long time. It was over before it ever freakin' began, just like I said that it would be. Nothin' ever came of it, and now -" Dean cut himself off again to give another harsh chuckle. "You guys can do whatever you want. I'm not gonna interfere anymore." He strode away from the bar, Sam and Gabriel hurrying after him, calling his name.

Jimmy turned to Cas, frowning. "Well, now we know something's definitely bugging him."

Cas rose from the floor. "Yes, but what?"

"Lisa?"

"Maybe. But, then, that was almost a month ago now. Why start making a fuss about it tonight?" He shook his head. "C'mon."

"Wait, where are we going now?"

"Back to the table, of course. Where did you think we were going?"

"But, what about the bathroom?"

"I was lying about the bathroom; I just needed an excuse to get away from Gabriel."

"Yeah, well, I wasn't lying about the bathroom."

"Well, what are you waiting for, then? Hurry up and go."

"Hold on, I don't want to go in there by myself!"

Cas fixed him with an incredulous look. "Please, tell me that you're kidding right now."

Jimmy sent him The Understatement Face in response. "Castiel, is this the face of a man who is kidding?"

"Oh, for -" Cas let out a huff. "Alright, then, fine."

* * *

Cas spent the next hour in resolute silence. Hannah had found a new friend in Amelia and the two of them, as well as a rather awkward looking Jimmy, chatted amongst each other at the bar whilst Sam and Gabriel made some attempt to dance to whatever music the Roadhouse had decided to play that evening. Dean had retreated from sight and was now standing outside, downing a bottle of beer. Cas had spent the past ten minutes debating whether or not to disturb him. Eventually, he ordered another drink from the bar and slipped out of sight, heading towards his best friend.

"Dean?" Cas paused for a moment before moving forward, letting the Roadhouse doors swing shut behind him. "Dean, are you feeling okay?"

"Cas," Dean greeted instead, voice gruff as he took the drink offered out to him and took a swig from from it. They stood in silence for a while, side by side, listening to the current pop track that spilled out of the bar.

"So," Cas said suddenly, clearing his throat. "The waitress seemed to take a shine to you."

Dean let out something that may have once been a laugh. "The waitress took a shine to me," he mumbled, so quiet that Cas almost didn't hear him. "Well, isn't that just freakin' dandy?"

"I bet you could get somewhere with her if you wanted," Cas continued, not sure what else to say in reply.

Dean shook his head, pinching the brink of his nose with his thumb and forefinger. "Forget about the damn waitress, Cas. Just...forget about her."

Cas narrowed his blue eyes at him. Dean had never been one to ignore a pretty girl. "Okay, really, Dean, what's wrong with you? Are you feeling unwell or something?"

"I'm fine."

"No, you're not. Don't try and lie to me. I can always work out when you're lying. Now, tell me what's wrong."

"It's nothing."

"Dean..."

"Just leave it, Cas. You wouldn't understand."

"Then help me to understand!" The younger Novak insisted.

Dean's face twisted into a scowl. "It's none o'your damn business."

" _Dean._ " Cas' voice was sharp. "You're not acting like yourself - in fact, you haven't been acting like yourself for the entire night. And do you know what? Maybe it is none of my business, and maybe I am prying where I shouldn't be prying, but that's because I'm worried about you, Dean. You're my friend; I care about how you're feeling, and so that means that I don't give a rat's ass whether or not you think it's my business, you damn son of a bitch - because you're upset about something and you're my best friend, which automatically makes this my business." He let out a long inhale at the end of his speech. "I've been worried about you all evening."

Dean turned to glance at him, but the bitter look in his face wasn't usually there. "Wow. You really know how to beat a dead horse into the ground, Cas."

"What does that mean?"

"Never mind. It doesn't mean anything."

" _Dean_ -"

"Cas," Dean interrupted, his voice almost pleading now. "Please. Just let it go."

Cas waited for a moment. "But I can't hold it back anymore."

It was a lame, generic joke, but it brought a flicker of a smile to Dean's face and that was what mattered to Cas. He let out a hum at the sound of the music changing inside the Roadhouse to something more sombre.

"This is my favourite song," he commented absentmindedly.

"Yeah?" Dean turned to face him fully. "Why's that?"

"I'm a sap at heart, I guess."

"I know." Dean's mouth curved into a smile. "Not that I'll admit it ever again, but it's one of my favourite things 'bout you."

"You're just saying that," Cas said slowly, feeling the air between them change and twist into something else as Dean shifted closer so that they were almost chest to chest, despite their height difference.

"I mean it."

They fell quiet again, the silence charged with something that Cas couldn't quite name.

"Cas..." The word fell out from an exhale.

"Cas?" The sound of someone else's voice made them jump. Hannah was leaning against the door, watching them curiously. "Are you guys okay?"

"Fine," Dean mumbled, moving as far away as the small space would allow. Cas tried not to focus on the disappointment radiating in his chest.

Hannah glanced between the two of them, her eyes narrowed and brow creased. "Jimmy's asking for you, Cas. I think Gabriel struck a nerve somewhere."

"He would do." Cas shook his head as he moved to go back inside, trying to ignore the way Dean's brilliant green eyes burned into his retreating form.7

* * *

 **Well, that was a long chapter!**

 **Until next time, my little sock puppets... :) X**


	7. It Is and It Isn't

**Sorry that this is so late. I would have got this up way sooner, but school, illness and lack of sleep got in the way :/  
**

* * *

 **7.** _It Is And It Isn_ _'t_

"Hey." Jimmy poked his head around the kitchen door, shrugging his coat on over his shirt. "You coming over to the Winchesters' tonight? Mary's making us cassarol for dinner; plus, Gabriel's still insisting on this band nonsense and I kind of what to see where this mad venture of his is gonna go. Apparently, he's roped both Sam and Dean into helping him; I'm amazed he even got Dean to venture out of his room."

"As pleasant as I'm sure that will be, no." Cas lowered the paperback away from his face to look at his brother. "Hannah and I are going out for dinner later. We're meeting at the bar when she gets off work."

"Again?" Jimmy rolled his eyes. "Seriously, Cas, you saw her when we had dinner at the Roadhouse two days ago. You guys spend so much time together already; can't you just give this one a miss or somethin'?"

"No, _Jim-Jim_ , I can't. It's our month anniversary today - Oh, come on, don't pull that face at me; you know that you're into the sappy stuff too!" Jimmy bit the inside of his cheek to stop grinning. Cas rolled his eyes. "Besides, what's wrong with us spending a lot of time together, anyway? I like her, she likes me; people who like each other spend a lot of time together, which is something that you would know if you asked Amelia out sooner rather than later. How is she, anyway?"

"Speaking to me, at least." Jimmy let out a sigh. "To be honest, I can't believe Gabriel is still speaking to me."

"You did try to punch him in the face, Jimmy."

"I had a good reason to. He was making Amelia uncomfortable."

"Because that's clearly what someone would do for their strictly platonic friend," Cas replied teasingly.

Jimmy flipped him off whilst sticking his tongue out. "You can talk! I saw you getting all cosy with Dean outside the Roadhouse. If I were Hannah, I'd be suspicious about that relationship too."

His twin rolled his eyes, although him shifting in his seat gave away his discomfort at this particular topic of conversation. He reached for his glass of water to distract himself. "It seems that you want this so-called romantic relationship to be a reality more than Dean or I apparently do."

"Hey, what can I say?" Jimmy shrugged, holding up his hands. "I think that you guys would create cute babies."

Somehow or other, all the water that Cas was drinking was suddenly covering his lap. "You _what_?"

"Look, I'm not ashamed to admit it. I think you guys would be a cute couple, and I know a lot of others who would agree with me too."

"Well, then, these people clearly don't know me or Dean. If they did, they would know that Dean is entirely straight."

" _Dean_ is entirely straight?" Jimmy's eyebrows rose in amusement. "I'd like to see that. And no mention of you and your preference, I see. What about you, little baby brother? Are you entirely straight?"

"Yes," Cas replied automatically, but the response felt heavy on his tongue, almost wrong in a way.

Jimmy, of course, didn't believe him. "Right. Well, I'm going to catch the bus in the rain and go see the others. I'll leave you alone here to your completely and utterly heterosexual thoughts that do not involve Dean Winchester, shall I?"

"Go away," Cas muttered under his breath, brushing his palms down his now damp slacks.

"With pleasure!" Jimmy called as he all but skipped out of the front door, despite the weather, slamming it shut behind him. Cas could still hear him laughing all the way up the garden path. Life would have been so much easier if he had been born an only child.

* * *

"I thought you weren't coming," Cas joked as a way of greeting, as Hannah slid into the booth opposite him.

"I got held up." She gave him a small smile, but it didn't quite reach her eyes, he noticed. "Work was exhausting." She reached for the drink that he had ordered for her and downed half of it in one go, letting out a contented noise as she lowered her glass back to the table. "Whiskey never tasted so good."

Cas let out a laugh. "I'm glad. Do you want anything to eat? I would have ordered on ahead, but I wasn't sure what you wanted."

Hannah barely glanced at the menu placed in front of her. "I'll have the three bean surprise. Oh, and another one of these whiskeys would be really appreciated right now."

Cas nodded. "Okay. Be right back." He rose from his seat and wandered over towards the bar, tapping his fingers on the counter as he waited for the server to fix up their order. He kept glancing back at Hannah every so often, watching her drain the last of her glass before resting her head in her hands and massaging her forehead with her fingertips. The action put a frown on his face; in the one whole month that they'd been dating, Hannah had always been smiling, always been cheerful. He hadn't ever seen her look this dejected; the only thing that ever came close to this Hannah sitting at his table tonight was their first night at the bar together, just after her previous partner - Cas had forgotten his name after realising that he didn't deserve any brain space that could have been wasted on him - had left her for good, where they had drank so much alcohol that they'd made themselves accidental Internet stars. No one was going to let him forget that in a hurry; he'd heard Bela Talbot humming _Down on Love_ as she walked past him just three days ago, a smirk on her face and a exasperated look on his. But, even then, Hannah hadn't been embarrassed or ashamed about it. She'd taken it in her stride. She'd had fun with it. So, what on earth had gotten her so upset now?

 _Meg? [Sent 19.12]_

Meg's reply came back only a few seconds later. _Clarence. [Sent 19.12]_

 _I think I've upset Hannah somehow. [Sent 19.12]_

 _Somehow that doesn't surprise me. [Sent 19.13]_

 _What do you mean by that? [Sent 19.13]_

 _Well, it's you, isn't it? [Sent 19.14]_

 _Well, thank you for that. You're being no help, as usual. [Sent 19.15]_

 _Any time. [Sent 19.15]_

Cas let out a frustrated noise and shoved his cellphone back in his pocket. It appeared that he was going to have to figure this out for himself. Collecting Hannah's food and his own, he set off back across the room to where Hannah was sitting in the booth, shoulders still slumped, fingers still rubbing her temple.

Maybe she just had a headache. Maybe there was nothing more to it than that.

"Here you go." He placed the plate down in front of her, careful not to jostle any of the cutlery and startle her. "I'm sorry about the wait."

"Don't let me distract you or anything," Hannah muttered in reply, probably not meaning for Cas to hear her. He paused for a second, before shaking it off. People were crabby when they weren't feeling well. There was probably nothing for him to worry about.

He sat at his own side of the booth, picking at his plateful of salad as Hannah drew her hands away from her face and began to tuck in to her food.

"How have you been?" Cas asked.

"Fine." Was all he got in reply. He opened his mouth to say something else, to think of another conversation starter, but Hannah was looking down at the table now as she ate, probably not interested in any of the trivial library related things that they usually laughed about, and so he speared another piece of beetroot with his fork and kept quiet.

"Hey," Hannah said suddenly, breaking the oddly awkward silence that had fallen over them that evening. "I didn't manage to tell you about this on the way back from the Roadhouse; I was talking to Dean the other evening - I think you and Jimmy had gone to hide from Gabriel in the bathroom or something after Jimmy tried to punch him - and he mentioned his break up with Lisa Braeden a few weeks ago."

Cas' fork suddenly paused in mid air. Not once had he heard Dean mention Lisa to him since the break up. But then again, Dean wasn't exactly in the talkative mood right now, was he?

 _Not to_ _ **you**_ _, anyway_ , his mind (unhelpfully) supplied.

"Oh?"

"Yeah, and it got me thinking, actually. About that friend of mine. Hester?"

Cas blinked. The name sounded vaguely familiar; Hannah must have mentioned this woman at one point during their month-long relationship - probably a moment when he was having one of his Summer of '89 crises, knowing his luck.

"Oh?" He repeated, this time sounding a little more cautious.

Hannah chewed on her mouthful, seemingly oblivious to the expression that must have been playing out on his face. "Yeah, you know, she's newly single, she's young, funny, blonde - exactly Dean's type, going by what he told me."

Young, funny, blonde. That definitely did sound like Dean's type.

 _And nothing like you_ , the Summer of '89 box seemed to sneer. Cas gave it yet another shove, trying to catch up with what Hannah was saying.

"...and so I gave him her number and told him to call her, but I don't know if anything's come of it, or if he's actually made any moves -"

"Wait, wait, wait -" The Novak cut her off "- so...you're...you're setting Dean up with some random friend of yours?"

"She's not _some random friend_. Her _name_ is _Hester,_ like I said. And, yes," Hannah replied without missing a beat. "Why? Is there a problem with that?"

There was a long and silent pause.

"No," Cas said, as nonchalantly as he could manage, resuming his actions all of a sudden. "No, no, no, of course not."

"Really?" Hannah didn't look too convinced.

"Of course! There's no problem. Why would there be a problem?" Cas took another bite of his food, but it tasted like cardboard now, and he was barely able to force it down without choking.

"You just seem a little..." Hannah's blue eyes searched his, looking for the right word. "...upset?"

"Upset? No! Of course not. Why would I be upset? It's none of my business who Dean gets set up with." Suddenly the plate of salad in front of him was the most fascinating thing he'd seen in a while. "He hasn't even spoken to me much recently, so, y'know..." He trailed off, poking another vegetable with his cutlery. "It got nothing to do with me. Jimmy seems to think I have some problem with Dean hooking up with people, but I don't. He just likes to joke around because he's a jerk sometimes." He closed his mouth suddenly, unsure of where all that rambling nonsense had even come from.

"Cas..." Hannah was watching him, a sad expression in her eyes. "Who is it that you're trying to convince?"

He glanced up to meet her gaze. "Excuse me?"

"You seem like you're trying to fool yourself more than me."

"Hannah -" Cas stopped and frowned at her. "I don't know what you're talking about."

Hannah sighed. "Cas, I'm not an idiot, and neither are you. Which is why it just blows my mind that you can't even see what's going on right in front of you, and that you can't even tell the difference between your own feelings." He looked at her blankly, and so she continued. "I'm talking about Dean, Cas."

"What about him?"

Hannah looked ready to throw her hands up in the air. "About the blatantly obvious fact that you're hopelessly in love with him, and he with you."

" _What?_ "

"You heard me. You two are ridiculously and utterly infatuated with each other and everyone else can see it apart from you. Even _Dean_ admitted it when I asked him about it!"

"He did?"

"Well, okay, maybe not in so many words," Hannah conceded after a moment. "Or, maybe any of those words at all, but I could tell! C'mon, it was totally obvious, anyway; how have you not picked up on it?"

"I don't...We don't...We're not..." He sighed. "Dean and I are just close. We've been close since we were five. That's all there is to it."

Hannah opened her mouth to argue again, but then she closed it, letting out a sigh. "Fine. I'm not going to argue with you about it." She lapsed into silence for a moment. "But I can't do this anymore."

"Can't do what?"

"This, Cas." She gestured across the table towards him. "You can bury your head in the damn sand all you freaking want to, I won't stop you, but I can't do this whilst knowing that you love him the way that you do, even if you can't admit it to yourself quite yet. I knew that as soon as I saw you two at the Roadhouse." A sad sort of smile flickered across her face. "The way you look at each other when you think that the other one isn't looking...well, in all honesty, it's adorable. And absolutely in no way platonic." Cas opened his mouth to contradict her, to say that him and Dean had always watched after each other, even when they were little, and that was the way that it was always going to be as long as they remained friends, but she held up a hand to let herself continue. "It was then that I saw that we were never meant to be. Not really. And, do you know what? I was actually okay with that. I know I may not seem like it - it's kind of a downer when the guy you like is in love with his best friend - but you deserve to be happy. You're a great guy, so you should be with whoever makes you happy, and, if that's Dean, well, I say go for it."

"But - I just -"

"I know." She cut him off again, almost expertly. "You didn't do any of this maliciously, or try to lead me on in any way. I know that. I understand. That's why I like you. You're genuine. There's no hidden agendas with you. Just honesty."

Cas tried to think of something to reply with that wasn't a garbled mess of sentences. He certainly hadn't expected this conversation to be happening this evening - or any evening ever, for that matter.

"How do you always know what I'm going to say?" He grumbled finally. Hannah let out a quiet peal of laughter, reaching across the table to squeeze his hand.

"Because you're such an open book, Castiel. The easiest read I've ever had."

They finished their order relatively quickly after that, filling the awkward pauses and silences with mundane chatter about unimportant things, such as the rainstorm that was due the next day; before Cas could even comprehend what was going on, they were standing in the middle of the brightly lit parking lot, Hannah's car on one side and his on the other, neither of them sure what to say after what had just transpired.

"I suppose I'll see you around whilst you're working," Hannah said suddenly.

"I suppose so," Cas echoed. "And, Hannah? Thank you."

"Whatever for?"

"For everything. For your kindness, for the notes, y'know, for everything. For being you, I guess I'm trying to say, as sappy as that might sound."

"Wait, what?" She was frowning now, the mystified look of a few seconds ago now gone. "What notes?"

"The notes," Cas repeated, his expression morphing to match hers. "The ones in the returns chute?"

"What are you talking about?"

"These." Cas rummaged in his coat pockets and pulled out a couple, passing them to her. "They - I thought you -"

"No." Hannah shook her head slowly, almost as if she were trying to clear it of something. "That's not - I didn't - That's not my handwriting."

"Oh." Cas scratched the back of his neck, feeling the heat start to rise up to his cheeks. "I'm sorry - I shouldn't have said anything -"

"No. Don't worry. It's good that you said something. Honesty is the best policy, and, well, I think we've certainly proved that tonight, haven't we?" She pressed the pieces of paper back into his palm and squeezed his fingers tightly for a moment before she turned away. "Good luck, Castiel."

"You too," Cas replied to her retreating form. He was about to turn and walk towards his own car when Hannah's voice stopped him.

"Y'know," she called over her shoulder, "I didn't write those notes, but I think I know who did."

"You do?" Cas looked confused. "Who?"

She shook her head. "You know who it was too, Castiel. I think you might have always known. Dig a little deeper and you'll see."

"Right." His voice gave away his disbelief. "Thanks. I think." A bewildered chuckle escaped him as he got into his car. Hannah was unique, that much was for certain. That was why he liked her in the first place. The smile slipped as he pulled out onto the road. That really was that, then. Their time together was over, and he wasn't sure how to feel about that.

He didn't even realise where he was headed until he found himself rolling to a creaky stop outside of the Winchesters' home and leaving the car, walking up the garden path and knocking on the door.

Mary answered the door, a warm smile on her face. "Castiel! I was wondering when I'd see you again." She leant forward and dropped a kiss on his forehead. "Jimmy said that you were out with that nice girl of yours tonight. Hannah, isn't it?"

"I was." Cas stuffed his hands into his pockets. "We, um, we decided to call it a day. There were...complications, it seemed."

"Oh, honey." Mary laid a sympathetic hand on his shoulder. "I'm so sorry. Come on in. Dean!" She was yelling through to the kitchen. "You've got a visitor!"

Dean poked his head around the kitchen door. He looked in better spirits tonight than he had at the Roadhouse, Cas noticed. Perhaps it was due to the bottle of beer in his hand. "Hey, Cas."

"Hello, Dean." He let Mary guide him into the kitchen and to a nearby chair, Dean choosing to sit opposite him.

"What's up?" He took a swig of his beer, before nodding towards it. "You want one?"

"Might as well, I suppose."

"You're encouraging bad habits, Dean," Mary said, handing Cas a bottle of beer.

" _Mom_ ," Dean complained, but there was fondness to his tone. He turned back to Cas. "So, what'cha doin' here? Jimmy said that you had a date."

"I did." Cas finally opened his drink and took a gulp. "We broke up."

"Damn. Sorry about that, man." He didn't sound particularly sorry about it, Cas thought, Hannah's words coming back to him. He pushed them from his mind and took another mouthful of beer. "What happened?"

"Lots of things. There were just aspects that she couldn't look past. She..." Cas paused. "She mentioned...She said something about you."

"Me?" Dean raised an eyebrow in interest.

"Yes. She said that -"

"Dean!" Gabriel charged into the kitchen, interrupting Cas before he could finish. "Your break was over four minutes ago; we're never gonna get the punk/folk movement to take over the world if you're just sitting - Cassie!" He beamed. "When did you get here? No. Never mind. It doesn't matter. You're just in time. The Angel Gabriels are just about to play in front of someone for the first time, and we need a live audience member."

" _The Angel Gabriels_?"

"Great name for a band, right?"

Cas turned to Dean, who shook his head exasperatedly. "We'll continue this conversation later, yeah, Cas?"

"Alright," Cas agreed. "Later."

* * *

 **Well, that was that! We're coming into the last few chapters of this story now (there'll be ten in all, unless something distasterous happens), and a lot of stuff happens next chapter, so that should be exciting!**

 **Until next time, my little sock puppets... x :)**


	8. The Long and Complicated Story

**8.** _The Long and Complicated Story_

"Why so glum, chum?" Meg nudged Cas with her elbow as she slammed the door of her locker shut and took a long drink from the cup of coffee in her other hand.

Cas' brow furrowed. "What are you talking about?"

"You've been brooding all morning; it was kinda entertaining earlier, maybe even cute, now it's just sad. So, come on, out with it. What's happened? What did you do to piss Hannah off in the end?"

"Nothing," Cas replied, ignoring the memory of the conversation from the night before that oh so helpfully decided to make itself known in that moment. "We just...mutually agreed to separate."

"Yeah," Meg snorted. "Meaning that she dumped you."

"No. Mutually agreed to separate."

"She dumped you."

"Mutually agreed -"

"Dumped you."

Cas let out a sigh. "Fine. Whatever."

The brunette rolled her eyes. "If it makes you feel any better, it was only a matter of time, really, until it happened. I was surprised that it hadn't happened already, to be honest."

" _Wow._ Yes, Meg. That makes me feel so much better."

"Any time. I'm here all week, Unicorn."

"Unicorn?"

"Yeah. Thought it was about time that we gave each other nicknames. It's cute, right?"

"It's creepy, that's what it is."

"Aw, what's the matter, bestie?" Meg slung an arm around him and laid her chin on his shoulders as they walked, smirking. "Not feelin' the love today?"

Cas shrugged her off. "I think I preferred it when you were being horrible to me. Even _more_ horrible than you are now."

She threw back her head as she laughed. "Clarence, you haven't even seen me when I'm being horrible. On more than one occasion have I made men fall to the floor in front of me whilst weeping."

"I'm not sure if that's really anything you should be proud of, Meg," Cas replied, as the two of them stepped into the elevator that would take them down to the ground floor.

Meg snorted, picking at her painted nails, chipping the dark colour from her index finger. "They agreed to go out with me. They should have anticipated what they were setting themselves up for. In fact, you are the one of the few that have survived a date with me without breaking down into tears, so kudos for that."

"Trust me, it was touch and go at one point."

"I'll bet." Meg leaned over and swiftly fixed his collar. "Well, Unicorn, since you've got a nickname, what should I be?"

"I'm guessing "Meanie" is out of the question?"

"Yes. Whilst that might be true of me, I don't want some generic nickname. Not if you get to be Unicorn, anyway."

"I wasn't aware that I got the choice to have Unicorn as my own nickname."

"You didn't," Meg replied breezily as the elevator doors slid open and the two of them stepped out onto the ground floor, where a trolley of books was already waiting for them. Meg tutted when she checked the post-it note stuck to one of the books. "Typical. This newbie can't even be bothered to scan the books back into the computer."

"Which newbie is that?" Cas asked absentmindedly, tracing the pattern of the embossed title on the cover of the book on top of the pile in his arms.

"Don't know." Meg gave the rickety trolley a shove, wheeling it out of the corner of the room, weaving in between the different shelves, Cas following behind her. "Whoever it is, I'm gonna find out. And then I'm going to tie them up and slit their throat with a blunt knife and see how much they like not having things done properly."

"I don't see how there _is_ a proper way to slit something's throat, Meg. It's murder. Simple as that."

"Of course there's a proper way," Meg replied briskly, pretending to be offended that Cas didn't know that there _was_ a proper way to go about such things. "If I were to do it properly, I'd use a sharp knife. Oh, come on, don't give me that look!" She stuck out her tongue at the reproachful look on her best friend's face. "I can't deal with your high and mighty moral crap this early in the afternoon, Clarence. Especially not on a day like this." She glanced up towards the ceiling with a look of distaste written across her features, as if she could see the rain tumbling down from the sky. "You know what they say about rainstorms. They add dramatic tension to a scene."

"What's dramatic about this? We're walking around a library in the middle of Lawrence talking about nicknames."

Meg sent him a hard stare. "See, this is why I don't know why I'm friends with you, Unicorn. You take all the fun out of life."

"I'm not the one who makes men weep when they go on dates with them."

"But I bet you'd like to, wouldn't you?" Meg retorted smugly.

Cas inclined his head towards her sharply. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Her eyebrow rose at his brash tone. "Ooh. Hit a nerve there, did I, Clarence? No, wait, not hit a nerve. More like whacked it with a steel pole. Someone's clearly got some issues rattling 'round in their brain."

"Maybe your nickname shouldn't be "Meanie". Maybe it should be "Torment"."

"Or maybe it should be "Perceptive". C'mon. Say it. You know I won't stop bothering you about it until you tell me."

Cas hesitated, wondering whether this was such a good idea after the last few times that he had told Meg private things and had them end in absolute disaster. But, then again, she was right; she wouldn't leave him alone until she got something out of him - something he knew from first hand experience - and so, with a resolute expression on his face, he replied.

"It isn't Hannah. She's not the one sending the notes down the chute."

"She's not?" For a rare moment, Meg looked caught off guard.

"Nope."

"How did you figure that one out?"

"I told her about them, just as we were about to leave the bar. She looked at the ones I had lying around in my pocket and said that it wasn't her handwriting."

"How do you know that she isn't lying?"

"Trust me. I could tell. She knew nothing about it. She's known nothing about it all along. As if last night couldn't have been more awkward, I had to make it a billion times worse." His voice had frustration laced into his tone.

"Again, if it makes you feel any better -"

"Yes, thank you, Meg. I got it. You always knew that it was going to happen."

"Don't say that I haven't told you all this before." Meg nudged his shoulder with her own. "Look, Clarence, Unicorn, so you struck out with Hannah. Big deal. She wasn't the one for you. That's just the way things are. There's plenty more unsuspecting fish in the sea waiting for you to catch and rip their skeletons out."

Cas raised an eyebrow at her elaborated metaphor. "I think that was supposed to be comforting, so, thanks, I guess."

"I'm your best friend, Clarence. What are best friends for? Maybe you should call me "Sunshine" as a nickname. Actually, on second thoughts, don't."

Cas found a chuckle catching in his throat. "Maybe I'll call you "Rain Cloud" instead."

"Rain Cloud..." Meg repeated, seeing how it sounded, before she nodded in approval. "Yes. I like that. Unicorn and Rain Cloud. It fits, doesn't it?" She looked like she was about to say more, when something seemed to catch her attention. "What the hell?"

"What?" Cas inquired, but he got no response. Instead, Meg merely side stepped him, abandoning their trolley and striding off in the completely opposite direction, Cas dropping the books in his arms and following her a few moments later. "Meg! Hey!" She ignored him, shoving past a large group of children that gathered by the back room and charging through the door.

"What the hell do you two think you're doing?" Cas heard her demand shrilly as he ducked through the door after her, coming to a sudden step as he did so, eyes falling on the two intruders. The majority of their faces were hidden by the hoods on their sweaters, but they were recognisable enough.

"Gabriel? _Sam?_ "

"Cas!" Sam's voice shot through an octave. "What are you -?"

"What the hell is _this_?" Cas' sharp tone cut him off.

"Nice to see you too, little brother," Gabriel began, but the younger Novak fired a glare in his direction. "Oh. We're not in the mood for being pleasant, then, are we?"

"I'm calling security on you psychos in a minute," Meg threatened, but Cas held up a hand to stop her.

"Explain, Gabriel. Explain _now_."

His older brother pouted in mock hurt. "Why do you always pick on _me_?"

"Because it's usually your fault!" It was then that Cas' eyes slid to the thing tucked into Gabriel's hand. A slip of paper. "What is that?"

"What is what?" Gabriel replied innocently.

"That. In your hand."

"Oh, this?" His brother gave a shrug. "It's - y'know, it's nothing - Hey!" Cas had yanked it out of his hands and unfolded it. "Cassie!"

" _If I could pick one moment out of my entire life, I would pick the moment that I met you_ ," Cas read aloud, before his eyes snapped up to the two men in front of him. "This - All of this was _you_?"

"Cas, I swear -" Sam began, cutting himself off in his haste to get his words out. He even moved a few steps forward, prompting the two employees to take the same amount backwards. "This isn't what it looks like!"

"Isn't it?" Cas' snort was humourless. "How do _I_ know that?"

"This isn't - We didn't write them! They're - All of them - They were written by -"

"Sammy!" The door banged against the wall, interrupting the little gathering. Dean was leaning against the door frame, a hood pulled up over his head too, glaring at his little brother. "Sammy, for Christ sake, stop hangin' about; get on with it or we'll get freakin' caught again!"

"Um..." Gabriel nodded towards the two other occupants in the room. "Might have a bit of a problem there, Deano."

The older Winchester followed Gabriel's gaze, freezing when his eyes fell on Cas standing in the corner of the room, his blue eyes wide and his jaw hanging slack as he put the pieces together in his head.

No one said anything for a long moment, not even Meg, who usually found it difficult to keep quiet.

"Dean?" Cas finally uttered, watching his friend's face go from white, to green, before settling on a bright shade of crimson, mouth open but no sound coming out. It wasn't until Gabriel gave a meaningful cough, which made everyone in the room start a little, that Dean finally started to move, hurling something in Cas' direction whilst muttering "For you," under his breath, before he all but sprinted out of the room in his haste to get away from Cas and the humiliation that had just transpired, ignoring Sam calling his name after his retreating form. Cas stooped to retrieve the object on the ground - another piece of paper, folded in half, with his name printed across the front - and opened it up.

 _I can't see me lovin' nobody but you for all my life._

"I think I speak for all of us," Meg said into the awkward silence that had fallen after the older Winchester's departure, "when I say, What the hell is going on?"

"It's a long story," Gabriel replied. "Long and complicated."

"Well, then." Cas cleared his throat suddenly. "You'd better start talking, hadn't you?"

"Alright. I'll tell it. See, it all started when Dean came and found us in the basement one day, just over a month ago," Sam began to explain. "He was pale and shaking, like he was about to throw up."

"He looked like he was about to tell us that he'd shot someone's dog," Gabriel snorted, unable to help pitching in his version of the story. "He literally started stammering as he went, " _Hey, guys, can I talk to you about somethin'?_ "."

"He wasn't stammering, Gabriel; he wasn't that nervous," the younger Winchester corrected. "Stop exaggerating for effect. But, anyway, I said, " _Sure. What's up?_ " Gabriel just made a mocking noise, but that's because he's a horrible boyfriend -"

"Yeah yeah, enough of the domestics." Meg made an impatient gesture. "Tell us about the freaking love letters already."

Gabriel turned his attention away from Sam and onto the brunette. "Yeah, yeah, we're getting to that,...Who are you, exactly?"

"I'm Meg, sweetie. Clarence and I are bestie buddies. He's my Unicorn and I am his Rain Cloud, isn't that right?"

Cas pulled a face, despite his confusion and utter disbelief at what had just happened. "I don't ever remember saying that we were best friends."

"You didn't have to, Unicorn. I knew it was true anyway."

"Now who's having a domestic?" Gabriel smirked. "But, anyway, so Dean's standing there looking like he's just crapped himself, before he finally comes out with, " _So, um, I got this friend o'mine, right? And he's got this problem._ " And, naturally, I say, " _What's his name?_ " And Dean blanches, obviously, before finally he comes out with " _Jensen. His name's Jensen."_."

"Yeah," Sam cut in, picking up where Gabriel left off. "So we decide to play along - well, kind of play along, anyway - and I ask him what's wrong with "Jensen". And Dean finally says, _"Well, y'see, Sammy, Jensen's also got this brother, um, Jared, he's called, and Jared, sorta recently, got into a relationship with his friend who's he's practically known since birth."_."

"And of course, I say, " _Really? What's this brother's boyfriend's name?"_ And he takes one look at me and eventually says _"Richard. He's called Richard."_ So I come back with _"I'd like to meet him. He sounds incredibly handsome."_ He didn't like the sound of that, the wise ass."

"Yeah, Gabe, you're diverging from the point here." Sam sent him a meaningful look. "So, Gabriel's just trying to wind Dean up by this point, and so I try to do some damage control by saying, _"What's the actual problem here?"_ And Dean goes, _"Well, y'see, Sammy, Jensen's also got this childhood friend, y'know. He's called, uh, Mi-...sha."_ At which point, Gabe is freakin' losing it -"

"C'mon, Misha? _Really?_ He couldn't have come up with something more inventive?"

"I rather like that name, actually," Cas muttered.

"You _would,_ Unicorn." Meg rolled her eyes.

"-But I say, _"And, let me guess, "Jensen" has got this huge crush on "Misha", has done for years, and doesn't know what to do about it, and so now he wants to crawl and grovel to "Jared" and "Richard" for their expert help."_ And Dean frowns a bit and says _"I wouldn't exactly call it grovelling, Sammy,"_ but he totally was grovelling, I could tell."

"Yes, great," Cas replied distractedly. "But what about the letters?"

"Actually, they were my suggestion," Gabriel replied, sounding rather proud of himself. "I knew that you liked all of this sappy stuff, so I thought, what better way to win you over? Dean didn't look too impressed at first, but when he found out that he could cheat and not actually verbally tell you anything about how he really felt, he soon warmed up to the idea."

"And, so, what? Dean's the one who's been coming in everyday and posting them?"

"Well, not everyday. It's really been a team effort," Sam admitted. "When Dean couldn't afford to take off work, we'd come down here and post the notes once he'd written them. It was easy to figure out your shift since it worked in with Jimmy's."

"Jimmy." Cas let out a sigh, dragging a hand down the length of his face. "Does Jimmy know about this as well?"

Sam cast a look at Gabriel, who shrugged, before he shook his head. "Uh, no. I don't think so. Not that we know of, anyway; neither of us have told him - just in case he told you - but he might have worked it out on his own by now."

Cas merely nodded in response. That did make sense. Jimmy loved his sarcasm too much to keep quiet about things like this.

"What I don't get," Meg stepped in, "is how in the hell you managed to do this without being spotted."

"We did get spotted once," Sam admitted. "Towards the beginning. Some old guy came up to us and asked us what the hell we were doing skulking around by the returns chute...Melvin, I think his name was? I can't really remember."

"Metatron." There was a note of realisation in Cas' voice.

The younger Winchester frowned. "Isn't that a Transformer?"

"He's our boss," Meg corrected. "See, Clarence, I told you that he was lying! This is why he acted like someone had wedged a stick in his ass when I asked him if he'd seen anything."

"And why he tried to warn me off having dinner with you," Cas added, speaking his thoughts aloud without realising until he caught a sight of Meg's unamused face. "I mean, uh -"

"Save it, Cas. Regardless of what that imbecile told you, I was never going to seriously date you. I have my reputation to think of, after all, even if you _are_ my Unicorn."

"Rain Cloud," Cas threw back in reply. Sam looked between them with a confused expression and opened his mouth, probably about to ask about the significance of Unicorn and Rain Cloud, but he seemed to think better of it and so remained quiet, allowing the younger Novak to speak again. "Were you ever planning to tell me any of this? Or were you just going to carry on with this for years and leave me oblivious?"

Again, Gabriel shrugged. "This is Dean Winchester we're talking about here, Cassie. Who knows what goes through that bumpkin's mind? If he had his way, he'd probably try to tell you through some ridiculous form of Morse code or something equally stupid."

"Didn't it ever cross your mind, Gabriel, that I might want to know this information?"

"Oh, believe me, Cas, we tried to convey that fact several times," Gabriel snorted, and Sam nodded in agreement.

"Especially the night that we went to the Roadhouse. _And_ the day when you turned up at the garage," the younger Winchester pitched in. "Dean called us up whilst you were outside. _"I told you guys that this was a crap idea! I said that it wouldn't work! Tell Gabe if he doesn't stop laughin', I'm gonna come home and rip his freakin' throat out!"_." Both Sam and Gabriel snickered at the impersonation of Dean. "Took us at least five minutes to get him to shut up and listen. I suggested that he simply tell you that it was him and get it over with. He didn't take too kindly to that. It was like I'd suggested that he take a nosedive off the cliff and take the Impala with him."

Meg wrinkled up her nose. "He sounds _so_ pleasant."

"That's certainly one word you could use," Gabriel replied, earning himself an elbow in the side, curtsey of Sam.

"Why exactly is he chasing after Unicorn, then? I mean, Clarence is, like, the opposite of that. He's pleasantness personified wrapped up in another layer of politeness when he's not brooding all morning..." A meaningful look was sent in Cas' direction, one which was met with an irritated sigh.

"Sure, let's go with those adjectives." Gabriel flashed his younger brother a smirk. "I can think of some other ones, but never mind all that. Do you know what really matters? The fact that it's almost fifteen minutes into the afternoon and I haven't eaten since nine o'clock this morning. I'm starving." He glanced at Meg. "So, y'know, if this little interrogation is over, I'd really like to get going right now..."

Meg fixed him with a stern look, narrowing her eyes. "If I catch you back in here again..."

"Noted." Gabriel gave her a mock salute, as Sam rolled his eyes and grabbed his boyfriend by the arm and hauled him out of the back room, calling a thank you to Meg over his shoulder, clearly grateful that she hadn't called security - or the police - on them for breaking and entering.

"Hey." Meg turned her attention back to Cas, who had returned to staring at the piece of paper in his hands. "Maybe you should take the rest of the day off or somethin'. You look like someone mutilated some form of fluffy animal of goodness right in front of you."

"But -" Cas tried to protest.

"Clarence," she interrupted, this time with a face of something that could have been seen as genuine concern, "you look nauseous. I'd rather not be around you if you're going to spew everywhere, thanks. Go on. Go home. I'll cover for you here. Mr Megatron won't even notice that you've gone."

"That's the name of the Transformer," Cas replied with a slight smile. The brunette rolled her eyes.

"I don't care. Maybe he should transform into a car so that he can drive away." She gave his shoulder a squeeze, not the usual teasing nudge she usually offered up. "Go. Get outta here. Call me later, yeah?"

"Okay," Cas found himself agreeing, stuffing the pieces of paper into his back pockets, before he let his feet lead him out of the room and out of the main doors, straight into the pouring rain. Thankfully, he had left his beloved trenchcoat in the car, and it was soon draped over his shoulders as he stomped down on the gas to get the ancient pile of metal moving at any pace that wasn't on par with a snail.

He pulled over after a little while of aimless driving with no real destination, idling on the sidewalk without a purpose until he fished his cellphone from his pocket and searched through his contacts.

 _Dean? [Sent 12.29]_

He waited for a few minutes. No response.

 _I think we need to talk. [Sent 12.34]_

No answer came to that, either. Cas let out a sigh, leaning forward to rest his forehead on the steering wheel. What would he even have said if Dean had replied?

 _Don't worry about the love letters, everyone else apparently already knows that you're in love with me?_

 _Even my girlfriend knows you love me, because she broke up with me because of it?_

 _Hey, don't worry about it, because I had a crush on you when I was seven and maybe, just maybe, I might still have a crush on you?_

None of those replies seemed particularly appropriate for the situation. In fact, anything Cas said would probably make things even worse than they already were. He really needed a second opinion on this.

He reached for his cellphone again, this time searching for a different number. The line rang three times before there was a click and someone picked up.

"Jimmy Novak."

"Jimmy?"

"Oh. It's you." Jimmy sounded less chipper now that he knew who it was. "What'cha want, Cas? I'm kind of busy right now."

"It's pizza day in the cafeteria. Yes, I know. Forget the pizza, Jimmy. I need to talk to you."

"You're talking to me right now."

"No, I mean in private. As in, _I'm coming to pick you up and kind of kidnap you from work from the rest of the day so could you get Amelia to cover for you_ private."

"But, Cas - !"

"Jimmy -"

"Pizza -!"

"We'll pick up some pizza on the way! Please, Jimmy. I wouldn't ask unless it was urgent."

There was a silent pause, save for the sound of Jimmy clucking his tongue in thought as he weighted up his options. "Alright," he said finally. "Fine. Give me five minutes and I'll be waiting outside. But, just know, if Crowley finds out, and I get fired, you're cooking dinner everyday for the next month, agreed?"

"Agreed." Cas cut off the call and discarded his phone in the glove compartment, dragging a hand through his dark hair as he pulled out onto the road once more.

One thing was for certain: Jimmy was going to have an absolute field day with this.

* * *

 **Well, there we go! The story wasn't really long, I know, bur Gabriel does like to exaggerate for effect. ;)**

 **Only two more chapters to go!**

 **Until next time, my little sock puppets... X :)**


	9. Radio Silence

**9.** _Radio Silence_

 _Dean? [Sent 18.13]_

 _Dean. [Sent 18.17]_

 _Dean, please. [Sent 18.25]_

 _Dean, it_ _'s been over a week now. [Sent 18.31]_

 _We haven't gone without talking like this since we were eighteen. [Sent 18.34]_

 _Are you alright? Just please let me know that you're okay. I'm worried about you. [Sent 18.40]_

 _Look, I know that things are a little awkward between us right now. OK, a lot awkward. But please please call me. We need to talk. I need to talk. There's things that I feel like I need to say. I just can't stand the thought of you hurting somewhere and me not being able to do anything about it. Please. Let me do something. [Sent 18.53]_

 _I'm sorry. I'm sorry about what happened that day. If you'd waited, I would've...We could have talked this out. [Sent 18.59]_

 _Dean -_

"Hey!" Cas protested, as the cellphone was yanked out of his hands and a steaming mug of tea was put in its place.

"For Christ's sake, Cassie, you're like some clingy ex-girlfriend or somethin'," Jimmy snorted, depositing the phone on the other side of the room, where his twin brother couldn't reach it.

"I am not!"

"Yes, you are! You're either at work and fretting over this or you're sitting here on the couch trying to get Winchester Senior to talk to you. Your voicemail messages are getting angstier and angstier as we speak." His voice took on an imitation of Cas' tone. " _Dean, please. Talk to me. I miss you. PS, I want to have, and would gladly have, your green-eyed children. Just sayin'_."

"Oh, right, because you haven't been trying to call him too!" Cas chose to ignore the remark about children and took a gulp of tea, wincing when it burned his tongue. More than once he had overheard his brother leaving messages on Dean's phone, even though it always went straight to voicemail, meaning that Jimmy got less and less pleasant as the days went by. The last time Cas had caught him, his twin had ended his rather angry message with the threat of beating Dean's door down and going after him and certain body parts with blunt safety scissors - something Cas was hoping that he was joking about, because he never could tell with Jimmy when it came to these sorts of things. Jimmy could be teasing him one minute and then throwing punches the moment someone _dared_ to try and hurt his brother, and Dean Winchester was to be no exception to the rule. Dean, who hadn't spoken to him _at all_ for days. They hadn't gone this long without any communication whatsoever since John had died, over a decade ago. Dean had come home from the hospital and locked himself away in his room for four days, not speaking to anyone who came knocking for him, only leaving to retrieve food in the dead of night and to use the bathroom on occasion. Eventually, after ninety six long lonely hours, Cas, who had still been living in the house next door with his parents at the time, had heard Dean knocking lightly on the wall - the code that they had invented when they were younger as a sign for the other to come over. Despite it being almost three o'clock in the morning, Cas had snuck out of the house and climbed up the drainpipe through Dean's open window. Mary was so relieved to see her son emerge the next morning that she hadn't even questioned the fact that Cas had gotten in without her realising. Occasionally, when Cas thought back, he wondered if she had minded about the fact that he'd essentially broken in during the early hours of the morning. If she did, she'd never shown it.

Jimmy clucked his tongue. "So what if I have called a couple of times? Just so he knows that he's in our thoughts."

"And your murder spree plans," Cas added with a small smile.

"Yes. Those too." His brother checked his watch for the tenth time that evening. "Jesus Christ, Gabe, what the hell are you doing? I told him to be over for long does it take to drive over here and pick up Sam on the way? Actually -" He paused "- I don't think I particularly want to know what they're doing."

"Has Gabriel finally decided to return home to his own house, then?" Cas took another drink of tea, now that it had cooled down. "I don't see why he doesn't just sell that place and move in with Sam. I mean, he's basically living there now anyway."

"I know why." Despite his previous words, Jimmy smirked. "It's because the walls are soundproof."

Cas frowned for a moment, trying to comprehend what Jimmy was talking about, until he suddenly caught on and his face morphed into a bitchface that could rival Sam's.

"Jimmy," he said in a monotone. "Stop."

"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be disrespectful to the grieving widow."

"I'd hardly call myself a widow. It's not exactly accurate - Dean isn't dead and we weren't even together, let alone married."

"Yeah, but it's not like you would have said no, if he had asked, would you? What? Stop looking at me like that! It's not like you can sit there now and say, _"Dean is totally straight, Jimmy, even though I'm blind to my own feelings too, and it would never happen, so stop being ridiculous"_ , because I think it's since been proven that it could very well happen."

Cas let out a sigh. Ever since he had told Jimmy the true identity of the sender, he'd been dropping questions like this. Well, after he mopped up the coffee that he spat out all over his slacks when Cas had told him that Dean Winchester had finally _"grown a pair already and done something that should have happened a long time ago."_ "You're asking me if I would marry Dean?"

"It's one hundred percent legal now, you know. No issues there."

"Yes, I know."

"I don't see why you shouldn't," Jimmy continued. "I mean, as I said, you guys would make a cute couple, and you've proven over the last three decades that you can put up with the other when they're being a little shit. You even wear similar clothes sometimes; you're one step away from the matching Christmas jumpers. Hell, you're perfect for each other!"

"You're talking about it like he's already asked me."

"It'll happen eventually. It's one of those inevitable things, Cas. You can't stop it no matter how much you try."

Cas didn't say anything in reply, merely took another sip of liquid. Would he? If he was seriously and honestly asked, would he agree to marry Dean? When he was seven years old, when it was 1969, he would have said yes without another thought - because that's what people who liked each other did. They got married. They married in order to be together forever, and he wanted Dean in his life for as long as it continued to last, and that would never change, not even if he lived to a hundred.

But he wasn't seven anymore. He was thirty three, the world was different, and the summer of 1969 was sellotaped inside a box in the back of his mind. Did that really make any difference, though? It wasn't like shoving it in some mental box was going to make any of it go away. Suddenly the phrase " _down but not defeated_ " seemed to take on a new meaning, when he thought about it like that.

Jimmy flashed him a lopsided grin. "I've already got my speech prepared."

"Well, you'd better discard that speech quickly," Cas muttered into his mug. "Because I doubt you'll ever get to say it now that I've made this whole thing worse."

"You?" The cheerful expression slipped from his twin's face. "How did you make things worse? Sam and Gabe were the idjits that got themselves caught by that Meg chick."

"I don't know. I just..." He trailed off, his train of thought changing. "I could have said something, you know? Made it better. And I didn't. I just stood there."

"That's called surprise, Cassie. It's a natural human function. I knew you were a normal person really."

"But what about Dean?"

Jimmy opened his mouth to answer - maybe to reassure that Dean would be alright in the end, that nearly thirty years of friendship wasn't about to go sailing down the plughole just because the two of them were idiots - when the doorbell rang, cutting off whatever words of wisdom he might have had.

"Finally!" He exclaimed instead, rising from his seat to venture out into the hallway, Cas trailing along behind him, the blanket that Jimmy had wrapped around him dragging along the floor after himself. That was probably what prompted the wedding question, Cas thought. He did look like some kind of blushing bride walking down the aisle, providing that they were carrying a mug of tea as well. The thought made him start to smile; Dean would certainly laugh at him if he came up the aisle, tripping over his own shoelaces as usual, whilst juggling a cup of tea, and probably spilling it over the two of them -

Wait. Since when did that thought turn into Dean waiting for him at the end of aisle? Not for the first time, Cas wistfully thought about how easy life would be if he had been born an only child.

"Where the hell have you been?" Jimmy was demanding, opening the door wide enough to reveal Sam and Gabriel standing there on their doorstep, along with two others - Meg and Amelia, Cas realised quickly.

"Cas texted us," Gabriel replied. "Told us to pick up some stragglers."

" _Excuse_ me? Stragglers? Did you just - Did he just say I was a _straggler?_ Did _you_ say I was a straggler, Unicorn?"

Cas exchanged a glance with his twin brother, who had momentarily managed to drag his eyes away from Amelia. "Jimmy, meet Meg. Meg, meet Jimmy."

"Hi."

"Hello, Not-Clarence," Meg greeted, sounding unimpressed, before turning back to Cas. "You'd better have a good reason for dragging me out here at this time of night, Clarence. I was about to go out for a drink when your chucklehead older brother showed up and ambushed me on my garden path. I thought I was about to be kidnapped and taken away to a freakin' brothel or something."

"Whoa." Gabriel let out a snort. "Sorry, dear. The only person for me in that department is my irresistible Samwich." He stood on tiptoes and tried to throw his arms around Sam's neck, but ended up having to settle for his shoulders.

Jimmy leaned around the embracing couple, and Meg rolling her eyes, to address Amelia. "I'm so sorry about -"

"It's fine." Amelia took her hands out of her jacket pocket and let him pull her inside. She gave Castiel a sympathetic glance. "Sam was telling me about what happened. I'm sorry, Cas."

"It's alright," Cas replied, even though it really _wasn't_ alright. If it was alright, Dean would still be talking to him and he wouldn't be having a mental breakdown over whether or not he was still in love with his best friend or not and what on earth he was going to do about it if he was, and if Dean would ever consider maybe going out for burgers sometime - if he wasn't busy, of course.

"Coffee," Jimmy said suddenly, which caused the general chatter - and noises of protest from an uncomfortable-looking Sam - to grind to a halt. The Novak cleared his throat. "I meant, um, would you like some coffee?" His eyes never left Amelia's as he offered, clearly implying that the others could get their own coffee if they wanted it. Gabriel let out a huff.

"Dude. Seriously? You're hitting on your co-worker at a time like this?"

Jimmy flushed a dark shade of red. "I'm not - I mean, I just - You're a fine one to talk!"

"Sam isn't my co-worker, though, is he? I'm not blurring the lines between work and pleasure by wanting to -!"

"Gabriel!" Sam gave him a nudge, cutting him off as Jimmy cleared his throat and began to retreat in the direction of the kitchen, clearly wanting to distance himself from this topic of conversation. He didn't get very far before Amelia spoke.

"If you're making coffee," she began with a small shy smile, "then let me give you a hand."

Meg let out a gagging noise. "Ugh. You guys are so gross with your whole puppy dog eyes thing. I thought it was just Clarence that had it bad with that Dean guy, but, no, apparently the eyes are a Novak family trait." She shook her head. "So, Clarence, Not-Clarence, are you gonna invite us all in or what?" She strode in as soon as she'd finished her sentence, not bothering to wait for an actual invitation to enter.

"She's kind of intense," Gabriel commented with a raised eyebrow, abandoning his attempt to cuddle Sam and putting an arm around his younger brother's shoulder, leading him back into the living room and towards the couch where Meg was now sitting, scowling as per usual.

"Trust me, you'll get used to it," Cas replied as he sat back in his previous seat. "Sam...how is he?"

The younger Winchester shared a look with Gabriel before sighing. "Honestly, Cas? Not that great."

"Not very surprising, considering that you two chuckleheads got him found out like that," Meg commented.

Sam ignored her. "He's speaking to Mom, at least, thank God, but that's not much of a comfort when he's either moping around the house or glaring at us from across the room."

"The glaring, I can handle," Gabriel cut in. "It's the brooding that I can't stand. The , God, the singing. I'm never going to be able to listen to Whitney Houston ever again."

Cas gave him a questioning glance, and Sam quickly explained. "Mom sent us on an errand last night. Dean refused to go at first, but she stared him down until he agreed to drive. He sang along to every remotely sad break up song that came over the radio."

"It got progressively worse as the night went on," Gabriel added. "It was a little amusing until he almost crashed the Impala during _"I'm All Out Of Love"_. If it wasn't for Samwich, we'd both probably be wrapped around a tree right now."

A smile flickered across Cas' face for a moment, before it was replaced by a weary expression. "God, I've messed this entire thing up, just by being so damn oblivious."

"Cas -" Sam began, but the other man cut him off.

"Dean and I have been best friends for years, and I couldn't even notice how he felt about me, even when it was right in front of my eyes."

"Don't worry, Cassie. We forgave you a long time ago when we realised that Dean was just as oblivious about the fact that you felt the same way about him." Gabriel paused. "Have you worked that one out yourself yet, by the way?"

"I..." Cas trailed off. "No. Yes. Maybe. Oh, I don't know!" He ran a hand down the length of his face. "It's all so confusing. I - I mean, I _thought_ that I liked Dean, y'know, _like_ liked Dean, when I was seven -"

"Seven!" The others repeated simultaneously, Gabriel chortling, Sam appearing to be shocked, and Meg just looking exasperated.

"- but how much of that was _like_ liking, and how much of that was friendship? And how much of that _like_ liking is still there now? I mean, I _like_ liked Hannah, even if we only went out for a little while, but how I felt about her was so different to how I feel about Dean."

"And how _do_ you feel about Dean?" Meg demanded, leaning forward in her seat now, looking eager rather than bored. This must be more like the plots of the romances that she secretly liked to read, Cas suspected. That almost brought a smirk to his face. Meg was a hopeless romantic and had a kind soul, really, hidden under the layers of sarcasm and predatory stares. It wasn't often that people saw through her façade, however.

He hummed in thought before he answered her question. "Happy. He always makes me feel happy. He always has done, ever since we were kids; we were so close and our bond was so strong that he could always sense how I was feeling. Sometimes I used to think that we were somehow mentally linked when it came to emotions; When he feels sad, I feel sad. When he hurts, I hurt too. But then when he smiles, it's like seeing the sun for the first time and nothing is wrong in the world. I'd do anything to make him smile, to make him feel..." He trailed off, noticing the smug looks that Sam and Gabriel were sending each other, and the amused expression written on Meg's face. "Oh."

" _Oh_ , indeed," the brunette echoed. "Welcome to the Matrix, Clarence."

Cas leant back in his chair, silent for a moment. Then, a loud curse of "Oh, _shit_ ," fell from his mouth, causing Gabriel to snort.

"Wow. It must be an epiphany. Cassie actually let out a bad word. Call the press."

Sam clapped the younger Novak on the shoulder. "Well done, Cas. I'll go fetch that coffee now, shall I? You look like you need it." He gently removed the empty mug from in between his friend's fingers and rose from his seat, disappearing from the room. Meg sidled over and put an arm around her friend's shoulder.

"Don't look so shell shocked, Unicorn. Just think, you already knew this deep down. It's not like you've suddenly realised that you've grown an extra foot or something."

"At least an extra foot can't cause you abject humiliation and heartbreak by refusing to talk to you for the rest of your life because it thinks that you don't have feelings for it when it turns out that you do," Cas mumbled.

"I'm not one to say _I told you so_ , Cassie," Gabriel pitched in. "But, in this case, I screamed it in your face so. Can't help it if you didn't listen." His younger brother let out a groan at this. Because technically it was true. He hadn't listened, after all.

"Um, guys?" Sam had re-entered the room, looking slightly paler than compared to how he had been when he had left a few moments earlier. "Someone pinch me, please."

"What?" Gabriel frowned at the odd request. "Samwich, what -?"

"Just, seriously, please pinch me. I need to know that I'm not dreaming - Ouch!" He turned to stare at Meg, who shrugged.

"You told me to pinch you."

Gabriel glared in her direction, moving to massage the place on Sam's arm where she had pinched. "What's going on?"

Sam shook his head as if to clear it, letting out something that may have been a strangled chuckle. "Well - I mean, I just went in there to see if the coffee was ready, except -" He cut himself off with an amused and startled snort. "I - I saw Jimmy and Amelia -" The door suddenly opened behind him, causing the chatter to stop immediately. Amelia stepped into the room, missing the cardigan she had been wearing (unknown to him at the time, Cas was destined to find it a few hours later, flung across the kitchen and sitting patiently on top of the refrigerator) and perched on the arm of the chair, Jimmy a few paces behind her, face the colour of a beetroot.

Cas sent the younger Winchester a confused glance, at which Gabriel let out a cry as he suddenly realised. Sam cleared his throat. "So..."

"Oh, great." Jimmy, who had thankfully put the tray down by this time, threw his hands up in the air. "Just let everyone know. Thanks." His eyes slid to his twin. "Don't you dare say a freakin' word, Castiel."

"Hey, I wasn't going to say anything." Cas held his hands up, his face twitching into a smile despite the surprise of his early epiphany. "Except congratulations, of course. Took you long enough."

Jimmy raised an eyebrow. "Took you long enough too."

Cas nodded, conceding. He couldn't argue with that, after all. Especially when he saw the smile that Amelia and his brother shared when they thought that the rest of them had lost interest in the sudden development of their personal relationship (and the death of their professional one).

"So," Meg began suddenly. "Are we going to get back to the reason that we're all here? As in, how do we stop my unicorn and his friend from moping around their respective houses and get them to admit how hopelessly in love they are so that we can all get on with our lives?"

"I agree." Gabriel nudged Sam's shoulder. "I mean, it's not like how it was for Sam and I. Neither Deano or Cassie has the ability to burst into a room and sweep their significant other off their feet."

"I don't remember it happening that dramatically," Sam corrected. "I remember you being very drunk and me telling you how I felt because I thought that you wouldn't remember."

"As if I could forget your declaration of affection, my one true moose."

Meg made a disgusted noise. "We aren't going to get anywhere with you two acting the married couple."

"It won't be an act for long," Jimmy cut in with a smug expression, prompting Gabriel to flip him off.

"Yes, well, unlike you lot, I might have an idea. As in, a plan type of idea, not just you two reminiscing about life during the war or some crap." She gave Cas' shoulder a squeeze. "Y'see, Clarence. I told you I could be of great help to you."

* * *

 **Next chapter is the last chapter! It's a double update tonight, so let's get on to the end of the story.  
**


	10. Happy Ending

**10.** _Happy Ending_

"What if it doesn't work?"

Jimmy rolled his eyes. "Shut up. Of course it will work. I mean, your friend Meg might be a sarcastic little...well, she's a handful, anyway, but she was right. It will work. Dean will show up."

Cas perched on the desk in his brother's desk, gnawing on his bottom lip. "But, what if he doesn't?"

Jimmy seized a piece of paper - something about marketing figures - off his desk and whacked his brother on the back of head with it. "Cassie. Stop. You're making me nervous and I'm the one that's got to do some form of acting. For the last time, he will turn up. Of course he will. It's you. Besides, Bobby will sort something out if Dean doesn't find the note himself. That man's got your back, even if you are an idjit."

"But, what if -"

He earned himself another blow on the back of the head. "Cas! Stop it!"

"I'm just saying."

"You've been "Just saying" for the past hour or so. You won't even be able to get the words out if you get yourself all panicky." Jimmy nodded to the paper in his hands. "You put in everything that you want to say?"

"I think so." Cas' fingers crinkled the edges, folding, unfolding, and then refolding all over again. "But, what if he doesn't listen? What if he doesn't believe me?"

"He _will_ , for God's sake. Christ, I thought we'd gotten over this last night when we planned this whole set up. He's been chomping at the lead for years to try and kiss you senseless, and probably do other stuff that I don't really want to know about. You really think that he's going to pass up a golden opportunity to do just that? To finally get the guy that he's always wanted?"

"Is this you now speaking from experience?"

"I haven't ever lusted after any of my male best friends for nearly thirty years in my life, Cas."

"You know what I mean. You finally managed to get the girl you've wanted for the past ten years, didn't you?"

Jimmy shuffled, a grin forming on his face. "Well, yeah. Yeah, I guess I did." He let out a dreamy sigh, a glazed look in his bright blue eyes.

"Jimmy." Now it was Cas' turn to aim his piece of paper in his brother's direction. "Still awake in there?"

Jimmy childishly stuck his tongue out, but was silenced from saying anything by a loud knocking on the door. His expression morphed into a smirk. "Here we go, Cassie. Show time."

Cas' eyes flickered between the door and his twin brother. "Oh, God, what do I do?"

"Get down and hide, just like we agreed," Jimmy answered, making the motions with his hands as well. Cas slipped off the desk and ducked down out of sight as his brother left his chair and opened the office door.

"Dean," he heard Jimmy say cheerfully. "Glad you made it, man."

"What the hell is this 'bout, Jimmy?" Dean answered, not sounding too impressed with the greeting. "I cut work short for this when Bobby practically bundled me out o' the freakin' door and told me to take the rest of the day off. You playin' at somethin'?"

Jimmy let out a chuckle. "Come on in, and I'll explain." There was the soft sound of footsteps tapping across the floor, before the door slammed shut and Dean let out a long string of curses.

"Jimmy!" Cas peered over the top of the desk to see Dean banging on the door and rattling the door handle. "Open the door!"

"Nope!" Came Jimmy's faint reply from the other side.

"Jimmy! I'm not freakin' kiddin'! Open the door!"

"No!"

"Jimmy, you son of a _bitch_! Open this freakin' door!

"Not until you make up with my brother!"

Dean let out an frustrated huff, his anger suddenly starting to waver. "I don't think that's such a good idea."

Cas cleared his throat quietly, causing the elder Winchester to start and spin round. "Um, actually...There's something I wanted to say." He worried at the edges of the paper, returning to his original position on the desk with Dean frozen into place by the door.

" _When I was seven years old,_

 _I went to my brother with a secret,_

 _And made him swear very solemnly,_

 _That he would always keep it,_

 _I told him about my greatest friend,_

 _And how he made the sky so blue,_

 _I told him about how you, Dean Winchester,_

 _Made me fall in love with you,_

 _I told him about how your eyes were green,_

 _And how they chased away everything wrong,_

 _I told him about how you made me so happy,_

 _So much so that I couldn't fit it all in a song,_

 _Thirty years ago did that day pass,_

 _And sometimes I don't know what it all means,_

 _But I realised that there is one thing that has not changed,_

 _And that is, I still love you, Dean."_

There was a long silence after he finished speaking. Cas risked a glance at Dean, who was watching him with a stunned expression, eyes wide and jaw slack.

"Dean?" His voice sounded too loud for the noiseless room. "Are you alright? Say something. Please?"

He didn't have to wait very long. The sound of his voice seemed to snap Dean out of whatever trance he had put himself in, and, in a burst of adrenaline, he pushed himself off from the door, crossed the room in three strides until he reached the space directly in front of where Cas was sitting and crashed their lips together, eliciting some kind of muffled squeak of surprise, before Cas got over the initial shock and moved a hand up to cup Dean's face as one of his best friend's hand threaded its way through his dark hair and the other settled on his waist where his shirt had ridden up.

"Have we just completely ruined thirty years of friendship?" Cas murmured when they pulled apart for air, resting their foreheads together as their breath mingled in the short space between them.

Dean gently bumped their noses together. "You bothered by that?"

Cas let out a snort."Is this the face of a man who's bothered, Dean?" His best friend let out a chuckle, but it was soon muffled by another kiss, one that didn't break until the door banged against the wall, alerting them to the scuffle that had been going on outside whilst they were more than a little oblivious.

A tall man in a dark suit, whom Cas suspected was most likely to be Crowley, stood in the doorway, arms now folded across his chest, his eyebrow raised and his face pulled together in some kind of amused bewilderment, obviously not expecting to find his employee's twin brother and best friend confessing their feelings towards one another in the middle of one of the offices, especially since Dean's hand may or may not have been edging under Cas' shirt. Jimmy stood behind him in the background, his face in his hands, mournfully repeating a wailing, horrified mantra of _Not happening. Bad dream. Not happening. Bad dream. Not happening. Bad dream._ Crowley opened his mouth to say something in response to the scene, but then frowned, thinking better of it, changing his mind before he spoke.

"I don't know what's going on here," he began crisply. "And, in all honesty, I don't want to know." He nodded once, as if to affirm what he was saying, before he turned on his heel and strode out of the room, throwing a "Carry on, Novak, as you were," over his shoulder, which made Jimmy let out another woeful noise and restart another mantra, this time of _I'm done, I'm done, I am so done._

"Well..." Dean suddenly said into the silence that followed, before he nudged Cas' chin with his nose. "You heard the man, Cas. As we were."

"Are you sure?" Cas' eyes flickered over to his twin. "We might break Jimmy if we carry on. I'm not sure how much he can stand."

"Hey, what can I say?" Dean grinned in reply, pressing a soft kiss on the other man's cheek. "Boss' orders, isn't it?"

* * *

"Hey, Cassie."

"Evening, Jimmy," Cas greeted with a smile, as Jimmy threw his jacket across the couch and slumped down on it. "I didn't expect you back here tonight. I thought you'd be staying at Amelia's."

"I'm sorry for being such an inconvenience, then. And get that mind of your out of the gutter, Cas," his brother replied, but there was less bite to his words than there had been in the past. "Why do you always assume that I'm going to do something unsavoury? I'm doing this properly."

"Right." Cas' smile was mirthful. "How was dinner, then?"

"It was good. She seemed to think all of my jokes were funny."

"Oh, dammit, Jimmy, you didn't tell the one about the walrus, did you?"

"That's my best one!"

"It's really not."

"You just have no concept of comedy, Cassie," Jimmy declared, rising from his seat and stretching. "I think I'm gonna turn in early tonight. My eyes are killing me." He nodded reproachfully towards his twin brother. "No sneaking Dean in at all hours of the morning. Unlike Gabriel's place that he never uses, the walls here are not soundproof, and I need my beauty sleep, considering how much of a fool you made of me in front of Crowley today."

"Boss' orders," Cas replied simply, smirking.

"I was ready to bleach my brain after witnessing you and Dean practically going at it on my desk." Jimmy rolled his eyes. "Please, keep it less public next time."

"Will do," Cas promised as his brother began to plod his way towards the stairs.

"Hey, Cassie?" He shouted over his shoulder, only just still in ear shot.

"Yes?"

"I'm really happy for you, man. You know that, right?"

"Yes," Cas called back in reply. "I know." A smile flourished across his face, staying there until he heard the noises from Jimmy's room falling silent. Almost two hours later, he silently closed the book that he was pretending to reading, placing it down on the table and slipping out of the room, down the hallway, grabbing his trenchcoat from the peg as he quietly shut the front door behind him.

With it being the early hours of the morning, the streets of Lawrence were relatively empty, which meant that Cas was soon rumbling to a stop outside of the Winchester house and standing on the sidewalk looking up at the drainpipe that crawled its way up to the second floor.

It couldn't be that hard to climb, could it?

* * *

He was wrong.

It was incredibly hard to climb.

Cas let out a hiss as, yet again, his hand scraped against the wall as he tried to grab on to the uneven surface and pull himself up. He couldn't remember it being this difficult when he was eighteen...Maybe he had blocked that bit out because it was too traumatic.

"Ow!" His fingers just brushed the surface of Dean's window ledge. A few more inches and he could have pulled himself up into the room. That was what people did when they wanted to be romantic, right? It had worked for Romeo, anyway.

But, then again, Romeo wasn't a thirty three year old man who was currently trying and failing to not slide down the drainpipe and end up a mess of broken bones on the garden path.

Of course, Romeo didn't have Dean Winchester who refused to close his window, and therefore was always there to haul stupid thirty three year old men through the window before they tumbled ten feet from aforementioned drain pipe.

"What the - Cas? Cas, what -? Oof!" Dean let out a grunt as Cas' entire weight was suddenly on top of him, sending him tumbling back and toppling onto the bed. "What the hell...?"

Cas clutched at his flannel shirt, letting out a pitiful noise of regret. "I was trying to be romantic."

Dean was silent for a moment, before he suddenly started laughing, leaning down to muffle his face into Cas' shoulder to hide the sound and avoid alerting Mary and the others. "Cas, you dumb son of a bitch."

"Sorry," the other man replied meekly, nuzzling his nose against the crook of Dean's neck. "Please don't get me arrested."

"As if I'd ever do that, baby." Dean tightened his grip around him. "C'mon. You've clearly had too much coffee and you need to sleep."

"Not tired," Cas replied, but the firmness in his voice was marred by the yawn threatening to worm its way out of his throat.

"Uh hu," Dean said, unconvinced. "C'mon, Huggy Bear. You climb through my window, you have to sleep." He started shifting on the bed, changing their position so that they were nestled against the pillows, with Cas' face still pressed into his skin.

"Get your mind out of the gutter," Castiel mumbled into the silence that fell over them, his eyes starting to droop as he began to relax.

"You get your mind out of the gutter, Cas." Dean rested his chin on his mop of dark hair, his breath warming the crown of his head.

It only seemed a few minutes later that Cas could feel the sunlight pricking at his eyelids as he was pulled from the depths of sleep, woken by the sound of voices from the doorway.

"He's kinda sweet when he's asleep, isn't it?" Sam was saying in a hushed voice.

"Yeah," Dean replied absentmindedly, almost dream-like. "Like a little angel." Sam made an amused snorting noise, which caused Dean to snap to attention. "Sam - I swear to God, if you tell Gabe -"

"Relax, Dean. Your whole macho persona is still in tact." Sam clapped him on the shoulder. "Now get in there and give him a hug. I have faith that you can cope with that."

"Shut up, Samantha," Dean grumbled.

"And, hey, for what's it worth -" Sam paused, most likely gesturing between his brother and Cas "- weddings are even more spectacular in autumn."

"Sammy -!"

Sam let out a peal of laughter. "Just sayin'!" He called out behind him, his voice getting fainter as he moved away from the door and let them have their privacy. Dean let out a huff, before crossing the room and tugging back the blankets, climbing in beside Cas and wrapping his arms around the shorter man, pressed against his back and resting his head on his shoulder. Cas shifted in his arms, turning over onto his right side so that his face was tucked against Dean's chest.

"Mornin', Cas."

"Hello Dean," he mumbled. "What time is it?"

"Um...a little after nine. I called that Meta-douche guy to let him know that you weren't your usual self. He clearly knew what was going on though; he sounded way too excited for someone who's agreeing to give their employee the day off."

"Good old Metatron," Cas smiled, before letting out a groan.

"What?"

"Dean, please, if you value my sanity, please tell me that I didn't attempt to climb through your bedroom window at two in the morning like some kind of crazed stalker."

Dean let out a peal of laughter. "Sorry, Cas. I'd be lyin' if I told ya that."

Cas let out another groan, burrowing further into his shirt. "Ugh. Dammit."

"Hey, I'm not complainin'. I thought it was kinda sweet."

"Are you sure? I'll accept the restraining order; it's only what I deserve."

"Nah. If you had a restrainin' order, how else would I be able to see that angel face of yours?" Dean pressed a kiss to the top of his head as he spoke, letting his face linger there for a few moments, before he leaned away. "I, er, I got you somethin'."

"Oh?" Cas leaned back to look at him. "What?"

"It's um, it's kinda stupid, but, y'know, I just thought..." Dean trailed off, looking uncomfortable. "I'm not so good with the whole relationship and tellin' people stuff thing - well, you know that already - but I thought that this might be a good start." He reached over to the bedside table, picking up a piece of paper and pressing it into Cas' hands. "I mean it, you know. All the stuff I wrote on those notes. I meant every word, yeah?"

"I know, Dean." Cas unfolded the piece of paper, holding it closer to his face so that his sleep-clouded eyes could read it, before a smile broke out across his face.

 _I'm a demon, but you make me an angel._

 _Which means that I am yours. Forever._

Cas leaned up and pressed a kiss to Dean's jaw. "The feeling's mutual. You know that, right?"

"Yeah," Dean replied with a smile. "I know."

* * *

 **The End.**

 **Well, that was that, folks!**

 **Thank you so so so much to everyone who read/favourited/followed/reviewed this story. You make my day so much brighter. I will be back on December 1** **st** **with another Destiel multi-chapter, because we can't do Christmas without some Destiel fics, can we?**

 **Until then, my sock puppets. :) XX**


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